


Flash High

by Notsalony



Series: Earth-95 [1]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), Sky High (2005), Smallville, Supergirl (TV 2015), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: AU, Backstory, Character Death, Character Study, Evil!Dante, F/F, F/M, Fluid Sexuality, Gen, Gender Pronouns, Gender Roles, High School, M/M, Magic!Moira, Magic!Oliver, Magic!Quentin, Massive Cross Over, Mega Cross Over, Multi, Multiverse, Oral Sex, Other, Polyamory, Powers!Iris, Rape, Replicant Sex, Shower Sex, Superpowers, WIP, doppelgangers, gender fluidity, powers, shape-shifting, trigger warning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-01
Updated: 2017-04-15
Packaged: 2018-09-13 20:25:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 6
Words: 41,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9140926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Notsalony/pseuds/Notsalony
Summary: In an alternate world on Earth 95, Barry Allen, a young speedster from a long family history of speedsters is preparing for his first day at Sky High, the most elite training school for teenaged superheroes to hone their powers and if they graduate, are granted their own town to guard against evil.  Barry’s hoping he gets picked as a Hero just like his father was.





	1. Intro

**Author's Note:**

> Coldflashwave-Baby this is SO dedicated to you. And guys, it always worries me when I’m first in making a tag on here, so uh, yeah, look at the Tags and feel free to write something for them yourself. Don’t make me be alone here.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In an alternate world on Earth-95, Barry Allen, a young speedster from a long family history of speedsters is preparing for his first day at Sky High, the most elite training school for teenaged superheroes to hone their powers and if they graduate, are granted their own town to guard against evil. Barry’s hoping he gets picked as a Hero just like his father was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Coldflashwave-Baby this is SO dedicated to you. And guys, it always worries me when I’m first in making a tag on here, so uh, yeah, look at the Tags and feel free to write something for them yourself. Don’t make me be alone here.

 

 

  


 

* * *

  
  
The hum of the lightning in his skin woke him up before his alarm had a chance to even begin to ring.  One of the draw backs to being a speedster was the constant hum of power just under his skin already working hard to restore his cells to peek performance and priming him for using his powers.  He sighed as he reached over and shut the alarm off before it rang and flashed into the bathroom.  A quick zip through brushing his teeth and his boxers landed on the ground as he was suddenly in the shower scrubbing, before zipping back out standing in just his towel as he searched for cloths.  
  
“You going to go in your towel?” His dad smiled from the door to his bedroom.  
  
“I just wanna make a good impression.” Barry bit his lower lip as he looked up at his dad.  
  
“Then this one.” His father zipped in and out handing his son a pair of blue jeans, a red hoody and a dark long sleeved shirt.  “Better hurry, you know how your mom is about breakfast.  Especially today.” Henry smiled before he zipped out of sight.  
  
“Yeah... I know.” He sighed before zipping into his clothing and gathering his school supplies before zipping down the stairs to the kitchen where Cisco was already sitting down to eat.  
  
“It’ll be fine.” He gave Barry a look of someone who already knew how Barry was feeling.  
  
“What will be fine?” Nora asked as she turned to look at the boys.  
  
“Looking into the future again were we?” Henry raised an eyebrow.  
  
“It’s a habit.” Cisco ducked his head as he buttered his toast.  
  
“A habit I’ve tried to tell you isn’t always good for you.  You never know what you might see.&rdquo  
  
“I know.” Cisco sulked.  
  
“Hey, it’s the same reason I had to promise not to use time travel with out talking to my dad first if I ever get that fast.” Barry hugged Cisco.  
  
“Hope you have that talk prepared.” Cisco shot a look at Henry.  
  
“Oh I do.” He chuckled.  “Same one my old man gave me.” He smiled.  
  
“Good.” Cisco nodded before nibbling on his toast, automatically getting up and making another plate.  
  
“Cisco...?” Barry frowned but noticed how he was setting the plate and zipped to the door to wait.  
  
“I swear Barry Allen if you don’t slow down in the morning I’m making a now powers in the house rule!” Nora sighed.  “That’ll go for you too mister.” She shot a look at Henry who had been smirking behind his paper.  
  
“Yes dear.&rdquo  
  
“I’ll yes dear you.” She grumbled before heading back to cooking.  Barry waited at the door before opening just as Caitlin started to knock.  
  
“Cisco?” She raised an eyebrow that had already started to go grey as her powers began to kick in.  
  
“Yep.  He’s just super heating the food for you.&rdquo  
  
“Aww that’s so sweet.” Caitlin smiled.  “I didn’t think mom was going to let me out of the house this morning.&rdquo  
  
“Still trying to get you to tank your power placement so you’re automatically a side kick?” Barry closed the door and walked at normal speed with his friend.  
  
“Yeah.  She said that’s what she did when she was in school.  She thinks it’s the best thing for me.  Dad was all for me using my powers and being a hero.  I think it’s because it was so important to Grandpa.  Mom says dad was a late bloomer and didn’t get his powers till part way through Freshman year.  Personally, I don’t know what I want.” She sighed as she walked in and sat down on the chair with the built in heating pad.  Being a heat vampire since the onset of puberty had limited her interactions with the guys till they’d started either making or buying supplies accommodating her new powers.  She smiled at Cisco who smiled back before passing her the plate on the special heating pad they’d had to make to hold her food off the table and stopping it from starting a fire.  
  
“You’re mom’s got a point.  I mean she proved the system wasn’t perfect, and helped write the new one that’s in place.” Henry nodded, folding his paper to pick up his coffee.  “It’s lead to some interesting and much more effective heroes.” He smiled at her.  
  
“I know.  I just... I don’t know what I want yet.” She sighed again.  
  
“It’s okay not to know.  J’onn didn’t know what he wanted to be either.  And he’s a shape shifting telepath from another planet.  Trust me.  It’s okay to not know.&rdquo  
  
“Thanks Mr. Allen.&rdquo  
  
“Your welcome Caitlin.” He nodded and looked at Cisco.  “You need a pep talk?” He asked at the boy he barely understood some days.  
  
“Naw.  I know what’s going to happen.” Cisco shrugged.  
  
“Cis-&rdquo  
  
“And I’m not going to tell anyone.” Cisco sighed.  “I’ve heard it all from my parents since Dante went rogue.” Cisco had been too young to understand that by seeing the future you change it in tiny ways.  But if you tell someone about their future you bind them to one of a very limited number of paths.  Either they would try their hardest to make that happen, they’d try their hardest to keep it from happening and cause it, they’d try to keep it from happening and maybe succeed, or they’d abuse that knowledge.  His brother had been about to get hurt really bad so he’d told his brother all about it.  Dante had listened and when the kid who would have broken his leg came at him in gym class, Dante had taken the first step in becoming Rupture.  He’d smuggled in a bit of metal that made his powers activate and had blasted the kid across the room.  He’d broken several of the kid’s bones and had actually caused his arm to explode.  The kid was never the same again.  They’d moved Dante from a side kick to a Hero because now they knew what his powers were and he just had to learn control.  But he’d wanted more.  And with Cisco’s help he’d fashioned a weapon made entirely of the element that activated his powers and had become a rogue.  Rupture was always in and out of jail now.  And Cisco’s parents blamed him for corrupting Dante by tempting him with his future.  Cisco often wondered if he’d not told Dante, and Dante had broken his leg, what the out come would have been.  
  
“Hey, he made his choices.  Dante was troubled for a long time and none of us knew it.  It’s more on us for not spotting it.  And you know I’m not worried about that happening again.  It’s more about the unforeseen consequences that time manipulation causes.” Henry patted Cisco on the shoulder.  “You have this power for a reason.  It’s up to you to figure that out or not.  That is your choice.  Just like Dante giving into his desires for powers and turning rogue was his choice.&rdquo  
  
“ok.” Cisco said quietly, before getting a far away look in his eyes.  “Can Barry use his speed to get us to the bus stop?” Cisco looked at Henry.  
  
“Yes he may.” Henry knew the only reason Cisco would ask that was if they were going to be late.  
  
“Sweet!” Barry grinned.  He started gathering up what they’d need and putting it by the door at normal speed.  He wanted to give Caitlin time to eat and he didn’t want to stress his mom out any more.  But the second Caitlin was done they said their good byes and Barry dropped them all off at the curb a couple blocks away.  
  
“I’m never going to get used to that.” Caitlin shook her head.  
  
“I thought your parents didn’t let you use your powers in public.” A voice came from above them and they all looked up to notice Sara Lance sitting on the tree limb.  
  
“We were going to be late.” Barry said up at her.  Then looked at Cisco.  “Right?” Cisco nodded.  “See.&rdquo  
  
“I see just fine.” She went limp and started to fall from the tree before tucking her body in and landing on her feet.  “But at least no one around here would notice.” She smiled.  
  
“Worried about today?” Caitlin bit her lip.  
  
“A little.  Always depends on the task they give at the power placement, and perfect muscle memory isn’t always a high priority in heroes.” She shrugged.  “Laurel’s the hero in the family right now.   She wanted it more.&rdquo  
  
“Oh.” Caitlin blushed slightly.  
  
“Hey I’m sure everything will turn out fine.” She glanced at Cisco who nodded.  “And it’ll be over with soon enough and then we can go back to worrying about normal-ish things.” She smiled.  
  
“You’re right.” She sighed, and wiped away the frozen tears from her cheeks.  
  
“Guys I think it’s coming.” Barry was bouncing, slight flecks of lightning forming around him.  
  
“Just do me a favor, and don’t get us electrocuted... okay?” Sara eyed the lightning carefully.  
  
“What... oh, okay.” Barry looked down and made an effort to stop himself from moving.  And waited as best he could for the bus to stop in front of them.  
  
“Better, thank you Barry.” Sara nodded before getting on the bus.  They got on and started looking for a seat but ended up sitting behind Iris and her brother.  
  
“Hey Iris.” Barry smiled.  
  
“Hey Barry.” She smiled at him before turning to Sara who was frowning at the back of the bus.  
  
“What’s Tommy Merlyn doing on the bus?” She frowned at him.  
  
“He got grounded.” Iris sighed.  
  
“What’d he do this time?” She turned and looked at Iris who’s eyes went silver as she tilted her head to the side.  
  
“He got caught using his powers to ditch curfew.&rdquo  
  
“Again?” Sara sighed.  “And I bet Oliver didn’t even get yelled at.&rdquo  
  
“Dunno.  I can’t read his mind this far away.  And Tommy doesn’t know.” Iris shrugged, glancing over at where Barry and Wally were talking at super speeds again.  “Boys.” She shook her head.  
  
“What’s that even sound like?” Cisco frowned.  
  
“Like white noise actually.  They’re thinking so fast I can’t hear it most of the time.” She shrugged.  “Which is just as well.  From what I’ve seen about boys’ minds, I really don’t want to be in my brother’s head.” She looked at Cisco.  
  
“What?&rdquo  
  
“You realize I can see when you use your powers right?” She crossed her arms.  
  
“So?” He hunched in on himself.  
  
“So I get it.” She hugged him.  
  
“Who’s that?” Caitlin nodded towards the front of the bus.  
  
“Axel Walker, and he’s sitting next to Winslow Schott.” Iris glanced at them.  
  
“Aren’t their dad’s...” Caitlin frowned.  
  
“The Trickster and Toy Man, yeah.  They are just trying to live down their dad’s reps.” Iris shrugged.  
  
“Have I told you how much I love that you’re a part of our group?” Sara smiled.  
  
“Only when you want me to read someone’s mind.” Iris crossed her arms.  
  
“Just tell me if Oliver got in trouble or not.” Sara sighed.  
  
“Fine.  I’ll find out.” She rolled her eyes.  “But you know he probably didn’t.  It’s not like Moira Queen is going to punish the golden boy.” Iris sighed, and she noticed how Barry slowed down to look at her.  She shook her head and waved him off.  She knew they both had a crush on Oliver.  They’d bonded about the fact that she had to keep every body’s secrets and he had a pretty big one that he wasn’t telling anyone.  Sure super speed was all cool, but Barry wasn’t ready to mention he was also bi or that he had a major crush on Oliver, who happened to be dating Sara’s sister.  It was why he liked to stay over at Sara’s house as much as he could.  And not just because her father was always working on a spell or something.  He wondered if Mr. Lance and Mrs. Queen were trying to make a super baby by fixing their kids up.  Sure Oliver had developed magic like his mom, but Laurel didn’t have a drop of magic in her powers.  But coming from a long line of magic users there was a chance their children would be some of the greats.  Iris staid out of their heads about it though.  It’s better to stay out of the heads of magic users, they set traps for telepaths who wander in.  
  
The bus made it’s next stop and J’onn and Harrison were standing at the bus stop with their children.  J’onn had adopted most of the alien children who had landed on Earth and had adopted Alex because he’d been her god father when her parents died.  Harrison only had the one child, his daughter Jesse and he was a bit over protective of her.  They were all taken a back when Kal-El got on the bus till he gave J’onn a pleading look and he spoke.  
  
“Keep an eye on your cousins and your sisters.” He gave a firm look, which actually made Harrison relax.  Iris wasn’t sure when they became a couple.  Probably after Jesse was born the way Harrison was used to being over protective of his only daughter before they ended up with a small herd of children.  
  
“Fine.” Kal sighed before stalking to the back of the bus to sit with Tommy, happy to have someone his own age to talk to.  Kara blushed and seemed torn between sitting back with him and sitting with her friends.  Jesse simply sped around her, tapped Barry and Wally on the shoulder and they moved to their own seat to play a few hundred card games to pass the time.  Alex came in and sat down next to Caitlin and helped Kara sit with Iris before Mon came in and sat down next to Kara.  
  
“Who’s the hottie in the front?” Mon smirked as he looked at the kid trying to check him out casually, trying and failing.  
  
“Winslow Schott.” Iris replied as she started helping Kara make sure she had everything.  She always worried she was forgetting something and Iris was the only one who really got it.  
  
“Do we know his powers or nick name yet?” Mon turned to the group.  
  
“Nope.  He’s not thinking about his powers or his nick name.” Iris said as she started making check marks on the list she kept for Kara, since Kara had actually forgotten the list, twice, already.  “But since his dad is Toy Man, I’m guessing it’s probably something in the construction zone of powers.  But I don’t have any clue other then that.&rdquo  
  
“Damn.” Mon sighed.  
  
“You’re just looking for a new boyfriend.” Alex rolled her eyes.  
  
“Hey, I agree with you and Sara, girls are hot.  I just like boys more.” He shrugged.  “Besides, I want a one on one relationship, I’m not doing the three’s company thing anymore.  Rory and that suit of his can have themselves.  I’m done playing second fiddle to an immortal magical relic.” He crossed his arms.  
  
“He’s asking about you.” Kara said quietly.  
  
“Really?” Mon smiled at him, and watched as the kid blushed and turned away, but kept on glancing.  “I might have me a new boyfriend before the end of the day.” He smiled.  
  
“Just try not to get caught with his pants down this time.” Alex sighed.  
  
“Hey last time it was me with my pants down.  Rory’s suit redressed him faster then I could.” He smiled.  
  
“God.” Alex sighed.  
  
“Hey he’s from Daxom, they were all like that.” Kara shrugged.  
  
“Hey, just because you grew up in a place that was super prudish about sex, doesn’t mean we’re all that bad with our quite frankly, enlightened view of fluidic nature of sexuality.” Mon shot her a look.  
  
“Mon, we have a shape shifting father who’s married to a super genius, we’ve all had the sexuality is fluid talk.” Kara shook her head.  
  
“Over and over some times.” Alex sighed.  “I wish they’d come up with a ‘it’s okay you’re a slut’ speech that didn’t sound like they thought the rest of us were being judgmental about the fact that you sleep around.” Alex looked at him.  
  
“Yeah, because that didn’t sound judgmental at all.” Mon rolled his eyes.  
  
“Well you are a slut.” Alex supplied.  
  
“Eh, sure.” Mon shrugged.  “I like sex. A LOT of sex.  And I’m not about to change now.&rdquo  
  
“I know.  I’ve tried.” Alex sighed.  
  
“Score one for Biokinesis not having an effect on alien dna.” Mon grinned.  
  
“Yet.” Alex narrowed her eyes.  “I know there has to be a way.&rdquo  
  
“Till then I’ll be content in my sexual explosion.  Do you think I should take my shirt off now, to flirt with him?” Mon’s distracted tone became more serious as he turned to the girls, and Cisco.  
  
“Uh, no.” Cisco frowned.  
  
“Oh, you think he’s the type that doesn’t like to start out with public displays, I get you.” Mon turned back around.  
  
“How do you cope with him?” Cisco looked at Alex.  
  
“I built noise canceling head phones that block out even his super shouting.  I mean, if I can’t hear it, then so long as I don’t see it, I don’t have to think about it.” Alex smiled.  
  
“Smart.” Cisco sat back.  “I...” He stopped talking as his eyes went glassy and he slumped in his seat.  
  
“Ow.” Iris held her head.  
  
“What’s wrong?” Kara asked.  
  
“Not sure.” Iris frowned.  “I think he’s seeing something.” She winced before nodding at Alex who slipped back next to Cisco quickly to catch him and relax his body before he could go into seizures.  She was getting better at this, too many times of practicing paying off in being able to hold Cisco and heal the damage his power was doing to him as it happened so that he’d be fine when he came out of it.  
  
“He’s never staid under this long.” Barry frowned from where they were sitting.  
  
“I’m just getting glimpses, flashes that move too fast to understand.  I...” Iris slumped over and Kara bit her lip and spoke so she knew Kal would hear her.  
  
“Cisco’s having a bad vibe, and Iris just passed out from the shock of it.” She looked at him and he came forward.  
  
“Anyone know what to do?” Kal asked as he looked between them, Tommy at his back.  
  
“What’s triggering it?” Tommy asked quietly.  
  
“Dunno.” Sara shrugged.  “He just stopped talking and just went into it.&rdquo  
  
“I’m not sure how much longer I can hold him.” Alex started panting.  “I’m already going to have a massive hang over once I stop.” She looked at her brothers.  
  
“I think it’s me.” A slender Hispanic boy in baggy cloths walked up to them.  “I didn’t mean to trigger this...” He gestured at them.  
  
“What’d you do?” Kal glared at him.  
  
“I lost control for a second and my emotions got out.  And most people just get a little fuzzy when that happens...” He bit his lip.  “I think it triggered a vision in him and she was in his head when it happened.&rdquo  
  
“Can you fix this?” Alex bit her lip, her hands glowing as she tried to hold on well past the point that she’d normally have let go.  The new boy was the last pick up and they’d taken off towards the school so she was trying to hold on till they could get to the more qualified doctors on hand up there.  
  
“Maybe.” The kid slid in and got on the other side of Cisco.  He put one hand on Cisco’s forehead and the other on Iris’.  He tried to slow his breathing.  “I’m Rene by the way.  Rene Ramirez, and if I pass out, tell them I’m an empath.” His eyes were swallowed up in black as the veins on his bare arms suddenly stood out in stark relief at the sheer darkness of them against his skin.  Iris slowly came to but Cisco took a longer time.  Rene passed out just before Cisco woke up.  
  
“Uh... who’s this....?” Cisco moved away from Rene as Alex slumped over, and panted.  
  
“Right, Kal, you think you can carry me to that empty seat so I can lay down?” She looked up at her brother and he nodded, carrying her over.  “We’re all four going to the doctor’s office once we get to school.  No body is to touch me except either Kara, Mon, or you Kal.  My powers don’t work on the three of you, but they might work on the others and I’m not going to be able to control the discharge from using my powers like that.” She started to pass out.  “So be careful.” Her breathing was still pained but was evening out now that she was unconscious.  
  
“I’ll get Alex, can you and Kara carry the other guy and help Iris and Cisco to the doctor’s office?” Mon looked up at Kal.  
  
“Sounds good.  I’ll wait till after we know they’re fine to call dad.” Kal sighed.

 

 

 

  
  
Mon had managed to pick up Alex, but the same abilities that allowed her to heal Cisco had the bonus of being damaging to some biologically produced substances.  A fact that became all too apparent as he walked towards the front of the bus, and his clothing simply dissolved off his body, leaving him to walk past Winn’s wide eyed face buck naked and sporting an impressive piece of flesh himself.  He’d had to explain to the nurse three times that he wasn’t the one in trouble it was the others.  Alex was recovering nicely on a synthetic bed so her powers could resolve themselves with out doing too much damage.  Cisco was in about the same boat as Iris, both of them in a little pain but other wise okay.  And the boy, Rene, was slowly coming around and off in another room with several teachers waiting for him to explain what happened.  
  
Kal had brought an extra pair of shorts from his locker and given them to Mon to cover himself with.  Kara, Sara, Caitlin, Jesse, Wally, and Barry were waiting to see if their friends would be released any time soon.  From there they planed to head down to the social meeting the school was hosting before going to the power placement.  Once they were sure everyone was safe Kal called his dad and sat through the lecture about being a responsible older brother / cousin and that they’d discuss this at home later tonight.  He was tucking his communication crystal back into his pocket when Tommy and Oliver walked in.  
  
“So the new kid’s power took out this many people?” Oliver frowned.  
  
“Not exactly.  He took out those two.  Alex was healing them when that over taxed her powers.  They’re in giving him the speech about time and place to use your powers.” Kal sighed.  
  
“You get read the riot act too?” Tommy raised an eyebrow.  
  
“Dad’s not happy.  I think Harry is going to have his work cut out calming him down later.” Kal looked up and smiled as he saw a copy of himself walk in.  “You don’t have to go around looking like me to impress me.” He walked up and kissed his doppelgänger who blushed and xis appearance shifted to have sandy blonde hair.  “You know I’m okay with you being yourself.&rdquo  
  
“I know.” The other boy put xis forehead against Kal’s.  “How’s your brother doing?” The boy shifted to suddenly look like a blonde version of Mon.  
  
“He’s fine.  Nothing a new boyfriend wouldn’t help with.” Kal rolled his eyes at where Mon was sitting.  
  
“Hannibal.” Oliver patted xim on the shoulder and smiled as Kal’s significant other shifted into a perfect copy of Oliver.  “That never gets old.&rdquo  
  
“You’re an ass sometimes, you know that Ollie.” The boy rolls xis eyes at Oliver before turning back to Kal and pulling out xis wallet to a picture of ximself and transformed slowly back into a tall sandy haired boy in tan clothing.  “I’m still having trouble going back to my original shape.” Xe lamented.  
  
“Hey, you know I don’t have a problem with what you look like.  It’s what’s in here that I’m in love with.” Kal put his hand on xis chest right over xis heart.  He knew his pair bond’s heart well enough that he’d started using gender neutral terms when talking about xim because of the fact that Hannibal, though having born male, was capable of becoming a fully realized female any time xe wished.  As a result xe had had to learn how to function as either and when xis powers got stuck on a couple years back, xe had adopted a duality of gender allowing xim to express either or all gender roles.  Kal had come to this planet with his parents, having escaped Krypton’s destruction together.  But they had received a toxic level of kryptonite poisoning and died shortly after Kara’s pod had dropped.  Kryptonians practiced a sort of loose pansexuality, so same sexed pair bonds weren’t any different from differently sexed pairs, nor were bonds with pairs who one or more of the member had undergone a reassignment of sexual function.  It wasn’t so much about what the outside of your partner looked like as it was the core of who they were.  
  
Kal had been drawn to Hannibal who’d isolated ximself from the others of their grade because xe wasn’t great at fitting in when xis power could change who xe looked like at the drop of a hat.  Kal had shown xim it didn’t matter to him.  They’d been together when Hannibal was male as well as female, and they’d finally found a way to generate random faces and body types for Hannibal to wear so xe wasn’t always stuck looking exactly like someone else.  They both kept a copy of Hannibal’s picture from before xis powers activated and an age progression of that form so Hannibal could turn back when xe wanted.  But Hannibal also kept a Kryptonian data pad that Kal had given xim so xe could run the program Kal had helped make that would generate random forms for xim.  For now when xe’d think about someone else xe’d just become them sometimes.  Xe was getting better at staying in one form though.  
  
“We still on for tonight?” Hannibal asked, well aware that J’onn was probably going to ground all of them for this issue.  Even though no one had actually been too badly hurt.  
  
“Yeah, come home with us.  I want to get some alone time with you.” Kal smiled and kissed xim.  
  
“Okay.” Hannibal smiled softly, still amazed that xe’d found someone who actually loved xim for xim.  “Want me to save a spot for you at the power placement?&rdquo  
  
“Absolutely.  You two coming?” Kal turned to Tommy and Oliver.  
  
“There should be spots with Laurel and Felicity if you want to sit with them.  I’m sure they’d love to have the company.” Oliver smiled.  
  
“Okay.  I’ll see you there.” Hannibal kissed Kal one last time, before heading out.  
  
“Is it because you’re dad’s a shape shifter?”Oliver asked once Hannibal was gone.  
  
“If you don’t understand it by now, you probably never will.” Kal rolled his eyes.  
  
“Eh, it’s fine.  You’re cool with my polyamorous love life, I’m fine with you and xim being together.” Oliver shook it off.  
  
“You just tease xim.” Kal gave him a hard look.  
  
“Xe just makes it too easy.” Oliver smiled.  “Anyways, we’re going to head on down to the small mixer going on.  Maybe pick up some extra food.&rdquo  
  
“Thanks.  I’m not sure if they’ll get out of here in time to actually eat.&rdquo  
  
“Uh, can I go with you guys?” Barry bit his lip.  
  
“Don’t you want to stay here?” Oliver frowned.  
  
“Want to, yes.  Need to... that’s a different story.” Barry blushed.  “Side effect of super speed.  I need to consume upwards of ten thousand calories a day, and that’s a lot of big meals.” He bit his lip.  
  
“You guys go, I’ll wait on them.” Kal turned to the rest of their friends who were waiting.  His eyes silently trying to convey he didn’t want to abandon Barry.  There was a great deal Kal could be oblivious to at times, but he had enough senses to tell him that Barry was attracted to Oliver and Oliver was uncomfortable about it.  He knew Oliver was more then likely going to say something either harsh or damaging and he was trying to stave that off.  The look Oliver shot him said clearly that he didn’t appreciate Kal stepping in, but he shot Oliver a look and then looked at Barry, telling his best friend to be nice.  Oliver rolled his eyes.  He always thought he was nice to people, but he’d noticed Felicity just patted him on the shoulder and told him that was cute that he thought that.  Totally beyond wrong, but still cute.  He sighed.  
  
“Yeah, you guys come along too, I’m sure Barry will be bored if he has listen to Tommy and I all morning.” Oliver glanced at Kal who nodded.  
  
“Okay.” Sara nodded, getting everyone going on out as she glanced back at Kal.  “You don’t have to protect him all the time you know.  He is going to have to figure out eventually that Oliver isn’t into him like that.&rdquo  
  
“But it doesn’t need to be today.  Not when it’s already been so stressful.” Kal sat down.  
  
“I’d better go keep an eye on them.  They’re likely to do something stupid if I don’t.” Sara smiled and waved to Kal before she left.  
  
“You don’t really think I’m a slut do you?” Mon looked over at Kal with a look that clearly said being called such bothered him more then he’d wanted to let on earlier.  Kal swallowed as he sat next to his brother and gave him a hug.  
  
“I don’t think you’re a slut.  You just really like sex.” Kal smiled.  “I’m from a world where we sought out pair bonds and didn’t look beyond them for sex.  So’s Kara.  J’onn’s from a world where their idea of sex involved telepathically joining with someone.  And you’re from a world where sex was an art form, and to hear your previous partners talk, you’re a pretty good artist.” Kal smiled softly as Mon blushed.  “The point is, we’re on a world where anything goes, with in reason, and yet some people are judgmental about what other people find fulfilling.  You just keep being you.  Maybe some day you’ll find your pair bond.  Maybe you wont.  Maybe you’ll just continue on with sharing such a deep part of yourself with others your whole life.  I don’t know.” Kal smiled.  “I think Cisco’s the only one of us who does.  And we made him swear not to tell us unless it involved a body count.” Kal looked over at where Cisco was in a quiet area, coming down off of his seizures caused by his powers.  Kal rested his hand on the back of Mon’s neck.  “Besides, when did the crown prince of Daxom start worrying if he was having too much sex?” Kal smiled softly.  
  
“Since our sister keeps trying to change me.” Mon looked over at Alex who was curled up on one of the beds.  
  
“She’s just trying to find her way in the world, and it makes her lash out sometimes to try to find a place of balance and a measure of control.” Kal hugged Mon.  “She doesn’t mean it the way it feels.  Most of the slights we take in from the things said by those we care the most for, often aren’t meant to be the poison laced venom that they so often turn out to be.” Mon hugged Kal back and sat there quietly while they waited.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Authors are fed through comments, kudos, and questions. Please feed a starving Author near you today. With one simple click of a button and a few key strokes you too can feed a starving Author what they need to possibly get their next soul crushing chapter written. Won’t you help your local starving Author?


	2. Power Placement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s time to show off their myriad of powers and abilities. But who will be placed as a hero, who will be a side kick, and who will be the switches amongst them?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It always amazes me what you guys like and don’t. I didn’t think this series was going to get that much love. And it’s actually been pretty well loved. Glad to see some love coming to this idea. I totally blame Coldflashwave-Baby for the great idea. I have a folder full of ideas that I loved and got inspired by. See end notes for current characters and powers. More to follow.

“And here’s the incoming Freshmen mixer.” Oliver said as he lead everyone into the room lined with tabled of drinks and food.

“Sweet.” Barry, Wally and Jesse said as one before zipping around everyone to vanish into the other freshmen.

“You could be a tad more subtle about it.” Sara rolled her eyes as she walked past Oliver.

“I’m not into him.” Oliver said half under his breath.

“Oliver, I’ve know you my whole life.  Our parents used to team up to fight the dark forces that threaten all existence.  And I love that it wasn’t the fact he’s a boy that turned you off.” She gave a sharp look at Tommy who blushed.  “But you need to find a graceful way of telling him you’re not into him or so help me I’m going to sneak into your room and fuck up some of your hidden spells you have going.” She got with in an inch from his face.  “So mark my words, I don’t care if my sister loves you enough to marry you after graduation.  I don’t care if it’d hurt her and Felicity.  I will END you if you fuck my friend over.” She darted away.

“Should we be worried?” Tommy looked at Oliver.

“Tommy, if Sara threatens to kill you, be worried.  If she threatens to end you... you start running the hell the other direction.” Oliver patted him on the shoulder.  “I saw her take down a full fledged super villain with magical powers and damn near break his neck because he hurt Laurel trying to get at their dad.” Oliver sighed.  “I have to find a good way of telling Barry I’m not into him.” He sighed, sitting down at a table before conjuring a glass and summoning some liquid into it.

“Problems witch boy?” A tall pale boy with silvery hair sat down in front of Oliver, his eyes pitch black except for his electric arctic blue irises.

“Not now Snart.”

“Please, we both know to watch out for Sara.” He glanced sideways at her where she was talking with some other Freshmen.  “After all, myokinetics aren’t known for pulling punches.” He smirked.

“Why the hell are you over here?” Oliver raised an eyebrow.

“Friendly warning.  Stay the hell away from my sister.” Len smiled softly, his eyes landing on a blonde girl talking with their friend Mick.

“I’m in a relationship.” Oliver crossed his arms.

“Right, and that’s stopped you from adding to your pool of women.” Len rolled his eyes.  “The point is, my sister is off limits.”

“What ever.” Oliver rolled his eyes.

“Tell you what, I’ll sweeten the deal.  You tell me what you and young Ms. Lance were fighting over and maybe I smooth it over.  I’m sure I can... cool her down.” He smiled at Oliver.

“We were fighting over the fact that I’m not handling him that well.” He nodded slightly at the boy talking to Sara.

“Cute enough, what’s his power?” Len raised an eyebrow.

“Super speed.”

“Not bad.” Len shrugged.  “He any good in the sack?”

“I haven’t slept with him.”

“Ah, you’re just rejecting him and he doesn’t know it yet.  Smooth.” Len made a fist above his own glass before dropping ice cubes into it he’d produced.  “Tell you what, you make sure you stay away from my sister and I’ll make the running man my personal project this term.” Len grinned.

“Because that worked out so well last year?” Oliver crossed his arms.

“Hey I found a solution.” Len nodded towards a tall boy with perfect hair who was wearing a small metal locket over his too long sweater and his faded blue jeans.  “Just wasn’t expecting it.” He shrugged as the boy walked up to Mick who grinned and pinned him against the wall kissing him before pulling back slightly to nibble along his jaw.  Len’s sister blushed and turned away as Mick’s hands roamed all over the other boy.

“I didn’t realize they were together.” Oliver blinked.

“Neither did they till about a week ago.” Len sighed.  “I finally told them and they denied it for a couple days, then they both sort of realized it and now, that happens.” He sighed heavily.  “It’s been fun at home.” Len turned back around.

“I bet.  Your dad still...”

“In super max serving the second of his life sentences?  Yeah.  Apparently being able to die and come back means that he might actually get out of jail and still having a life.  Unfortunately.” Len slumped in his seat.

“Sorry.” Oliver nodded.

“It’s been okay.  I’m in charge and raising the four of us.  Ray came to live with us over the summer.  It’s not easy, but I’m old enough to get some work where I can use my powers.” He shrugged.

“How about Mick?” Oliver looked over at the tall blonde boy aggressively kissing Ray.

“My fire related best friend is still legally too young to accept side gigs.” Len looked at Oliver.

“So he’s doing something on the side and you’re hoping no one notices.” Oliver nodded.

“He’s assisting Jason.” Len gave a sour look.

“Blood... seriously?” Oliver wrinkled his nose.

“He’s an immortal trapped as a teenager and one of the greatest magic users this eon.  It’s just that sometimes his spells...” Len frowned.

“Have a chance of turning him into a child and making him have to reenter high school all over again?” Oliver finished.

“He pissed off Merlin.”

“Which is enough reason to avoid the hell out of him.” Oliver crossed his arms.

“But he’s about the only fire user who can handle Mick’s... issues.” Len gave a side glance at where Ray was nodding to Mick and walking off.

“Have they gotten worse...?”

“I had to ask Jason to do wards around Mick’s room.  And ask Ray to sleep in a separate room from Mick.” Len shrugged.  “I don’t mind them sleeping together when it’s sex.  But if Mick’s going to be unconscious, he’s sealed in that fucking room by himself.” Len watched Mick go back to Lisa and talk with her, walking her around introducing her to people.

“Has he shown any secondary powers yet?” Oliver was watching with him, his eyes sparkling with the detection magic he was using.  Len sighed.  “What happened?”

“The fire started taking shapes when it gets really bad.” Len crossed his arms.

“Sounds like he could use a little more attention in metaphysics.” Oliver turned back to Len.

“Maybe. But you try explaining that to him.”

“Does he remember?”

“He knows damn well why he’s in that room alone at night.  We had to call in a healer for Lisa’s arm this summer.  She phased in to see what was going on in there and he grabbed her arm in his sleep.  There was an open flame in the room and he could have burned her arm off if she’d not phased out of his grasp.  She got away with a nasty burn inside her arm and it took her a month to learn to use it again after the healer fixed her up.” Len was struggling not to close off.  “I ever find the bastard that hurt him...”

“It’s good that you’re still protective of him.” Oliver smiled a soft sad little smile.  “Has he given you anymore to go on?”

“No.” Len sighed.  “And I don’t want to push him.  I love Mick like a brother.  He’ll always be family.  But... the other Mick scares the crap out of me.”

“That’s why our parents were always so protective of us as we came into our powers.  The wrong kind of trauma while we’re just starting out can shape how our powers form.  Mick ended up a pyropath.  He can control fire but he can’t produce the flames.  But his other personality, the one he formed after his attack....”

“Call a spade a spade.  He was raped.”

“After his rape... he formed a personality to protect himself.  One who is a full blown Pyrokinetic with Infernokinesis to boot.”

“Yeah, nothing like having a raving lunatic who can throw blasts of hellfire at you when ever his primary personality is rendered dormant.” Len sighed.  “Jason gave the three of us tattoos that should protect us from Mick’s hellfire but the two of him don’t remember what the other one knows.  The other Mick doesn’t know who we are or why we lock him up.  Just that we’re doing so and he gets angry.  Mick’s night terrors where they’re both unconscious and their powers bleed together into some sort of all powerful fire demon... that’s when we worry the most.”

“And Ray’s okay with living with him?”

“He sat right down in Mick’s lap, kissed him, and told him he wasn’t going anywhere.” Len smiled.  “Made me like the kid even more.”

“I’d imagine.” Oliver nodded.  “Loyalty seems to rank up there pretty high on your list.”

“Always has, always will.”

“So...” Oliver looked at Len.

“Why the hell am I talking to you?” Oliver nodded.  “My sister.  I want to look out for her.  That includes making sure she ends up with the right person.  You aren’t the right person for her so I’d like to avoid the fall out.  Just like you want to avoid hurting the pretty boy with the super speed.” Len smiled.

“I just...” Oliver blushed.

“You just don’t know what to do when people cross that line from liking you to loving you and you don’t love them back, and you really don’t know what to do with a boy who looks at you like you hold the sun and the moon in your hands.”

“Yeah.” Oliver sighed heavily as he looked at Len.

“You stay away from my sister, and I’ll handle the kid.  I’ll find him someone to crush on soon so he can get his mind off of getting into your pants.” Len smirked.  “Besides, after our break up, believe me, I know what it takes to get into those pants.” He smirked before giving a quick kiss to Oliver’s lips before walking off.

“I can’t believe you dated him.”

“I was in a weird place...”

“The I want to be self destructive and date someone my mother will instantly hate and banish from the house place?” Tommy scowled after Len.

“About the same place we were in when we had sex at your dad’s place.”

“Don’t remind me.  I had a lecture for ages about that.  The Great Malcom Merlyn wants grand children and I’d better find a great power to breed with.”

“He’s just pissed off that you didn’t end up immortal like he did.  Though our sister....” Oliver looked over to where Thea was standing talking with some people.

“Yeah I heard the latest tests show she’s a potential power.  So he might start throwing all his attention on her...” Tommy sighed.

“Jealous?”

“That my little sister who doesn’t have active powers yet already is Dad’s favorite of this generation of kids...?” Tommy looked at Oliver.

“I think you just answered both our questions.”

“Yeah.  Yeah I did.”

“I’m sure it wont be so bad.” Oliver tried to console his best friend.

“I have an older brother who’s only power ended up being super strength.  And dad hasn’t spoken to him in a decade.  I’m pretty sure flight alone isn’t going to get me a huge victory.  Especially since I haven’t developed any secondary aspects.”

“You could always have Alex tweak it...”

“Naw.  Dad’s talking about a birthday trip to see Evo.” Tommy laid his head down on his arms on the table.

“He’d really take you to see Evo?” Oliver looked around, casting a charm of silence around them.

“Yep.  Said if I don’t develop a secondary power or ability by my birthday, I get to go see the guy who’s power is it hyper evolves anyone he touches.  And he’s a neutral party.  I mean he made Swarm and Vox into super villains.  And it’s rumored he’s helped some of the great heroes of the last generation.”

“But... doesn’t that seem a bit extreme... I mean... in magic we’re taught to use our power first and then artifacts, and if everything else fails, THEN you turn to a higher power.  You don’t go fucking with the natural order and changing your power before you’ve tried everything else.”

“You tried to use a spell to make my strength go up with my flight.  And all that did was get me grounded when I barreled through a wall that should have killed me and dad had me tested and discovered the spell he had you remove.  Trust me.  I’m not liking this idea... but what can I do.  He’s my dad.  Till I’m old enough to graduate next year, he kind of gets to make all the decisions medically.”

“This still doesn’t seem right.”

“I know.” Tommy sighed.  “Believe me, I know.”  


Slowly the welcoming party broke up as people made their way to the gym.  Once everyone was sitting around in the bleachers   A tall red headed man with his hair slicked back was standing in a white uniform looking at a tablet.  He waited for everyone to be seated.

“I’m Coach Bolder, You might recognize me from my days as the Fantastic Bolder.” He morphed into a large rock golem and growled for the crowd before he morphed back.  “When Coach Boomer retired I took over and have been placed in charge of Power Placement.  Now in the old days we’d have sorted you into either hero or hero support, what is often called sidekicks.  The old system had some flaws.  And has been retooled.  We still have Heroes and Sidekicks because some people are better suited there.  But we’ve added the in-between course work of Switches.  Because some powers can be utilized with training to make one a Hero or a Sidekick.  The new system also has a movement system inside it.  If you are sorted into a Sidekick and demonstrate over the course of the year that you can be more then that and do more then you can right now with your powers, you’ll be moved to the Switch courses, and again, by the end of the year, you’ll be tested and if you keep improving you might become a full Hero by the end of the year.  Likewise Heroes who do not preform well and show that they have the power but aren’t cut out to use that power properly can be transferred to the Switch course and on down to the Sidekick courses by the end of the year.” A lot had changed since he’d been the gangly curly red headed nerd who got on this stage and been called little Larry by Coach Boomer before he transformed.  He’d had a good run as The Fantastic Bolder protecting his city.  He’d retired from fighting crime to take this job and he was happy with that choice.  It was nice to be back here.

“This is the system by which we monitor and maintain not only your powers, but your mental health and the potential health of those who’s lives will be placed in your hands.” He looked down at the tablet.  “You’ve been randomly assigned a spot on the list Freshmen to come up, use your powers, in front of the entire class, and then I’ll give you your first placement.”  He stepped back to the edge.  “Sara Lance.”  Sara stood up and walked up to the stage.  “Power?”

“Myokinesis.” She smiled at him.

“Mastery of Muscles, what degree?”

“Perfect Muscle Memory.” She pulled out her phone and played a video of a person doing a complicated looking series of moves that ended in a single hand stand.  She closed her eyes and started doing the jumps, tucks, twists, twirls, and ended on the same move before hopping down.

“Hero.” Coach Bolder nodded, tapping his tablet as Sara moved off to where the new Hero section was set up.  “Next up, Rene Ramirez.” Rene sheepishly got up and stood next to the Coach.  “Power?”

“I’m an empath...” Rene blushed.

“Which form?” Rene looked at him.  “Do you only feel other people’s emotions or do you make them feel your emotions?”

“Both?” Rene shrugged.

“So we’ll go with Pathokinesis.  Make me feel something.” Rene nodded and his eyes went blank as he channeled a stream of color from someone into the Coach who shivered.  “Okay, not bad.  But we’re going to start you out as a Sidekick.”

“Okay.” Rene blushed and went to the new section for his group.

“Caitlin Snow?” Caitlin came up and stood beside him.  “Power?”

“Psychrokinesis and Cryokinesis.” She looked at him.

“So you can control cold and ice, not bad.  A nice change, you don’t get many who can do both.” He pressed a button and a flaming projectile came at her.  As it approached her the fire went out and she put up a wall to stop it in place, before panting.  “Right, Switch, because I think it’ll be a better fit for you.” Caitlin nodded, still winded, and walking to the new section to sit in.  “Kara-Zorel.” Kara flew up to the stage.  “So flight...” Coach Bolder started writing.

“Flight, super strength, some frost breath, and heat beams from my eyes. “She blushed as she stood there.

“Not bad.” He nodded.  “About on par with your cousin?”

“Just about.  Apparently female Kryptonians are physically stronger...” She blushed again.

“Right... Car.” He pushed a button and she caught a car one handed as it fell before lifting it into the air and cutting it in half with her eye beams.  “Hero.” Kara beamed and flew over to sit with Sara.  “Mon-El?” He watched Mon walk up to the stage in some rather tight gym cloths that didn’t leave much to the imagination.  “Same planet as the other two?”

“No.  Same system, different planet.  No flight, no frost breath, no laser eyes, just some strength, and passive immunity to some substances.  And some quirky allergies...”

“Right.  Car.” The car dropped and Mon caught it with both hands but struggled to hold it up.  “Switch.” He tapped his tablet and Mon sat the car down before walking off towards where Caitlin was sitting and taking the seat near hers.  “Cisco Ramon.” Cisco got up and walked up to the stage and stood there, not going onto it.  “Power?”

“Seismokinesis and I’ll be over in the sidekick booth.”

“Uh, that’s more for...”

“I see the vibrations of everything in the universe, and it makes me see the future.  I can see a lot of things, and am under a strict no using my precognitive abilities with out just cause.  But I’ve known for a week now where I was going so, I’ll go sit over there in Sidekick land, and you can move along with your life.  Also, tie your shoe lace, the next guy’s going to make you wish you had.” Cisco walked around the stage and went and sat with Rene who blinked at him.

“I can’t believe you just did that.” He said as he watched Coach Bolder tie his shoe.

“Eh, I know where I belong.  I don’t need a test to tell me that.” He shrugged.  “Besides, I need to be here.” He shrugged.

“O...k...” Rene frowned.

“Right, Winslow Schott Jr.” Coach Bolder shouted.  Winn got up and so did another student near him.  “Uh, one at a time, unless... you’re not both named...” He frowned.

“No sir.  Jimmy Olsen needs to go before me or my power makes no sense.”

“Uh, you guys do understand that I’m the one in charge here right?”

“Yes sir.  It’s just... trust me?”

“Fine, Olsen you’re up.”

“Thank you sir.” Jimmy stood there, his cloths loose on his lean body as he stood there.

“Power?”

“Lutumkinesis.”

“You have power over... clay...?” Coach tilted his head.

“Yes sir.” Jimmy nodded.  “Can you give me the car sir?”

“Okay... Car.” Jimmy put his hands up and as the car came down at him his arms doubled in mass and shape and caught the car in mid air.

“Okay what the hell is going on here, that’s not... but.. what?” The Coach looked down at Winn.

“He’s a golem that I made.  My dad made the Olsen family as a means to babysit me while he was out committing crimes.  I got board years ago and I created a Son for them.  Jimmy.  My power is Marrionetakinesis, the control of golems and puppets.  I gave Jimmy the power over what he and his family are made out of, clay.”

“Right...” Coach stood there in shock.

“Put the car down.” Winn’s eyes glowed before Jimmy simply sat the car down and his arms returned to normal.

“I think you’ll fit in as Sidekicks right now...” He shook his head trying to think of anyone else bringing their golem to school like this, utterly confused as Winn and Jimmy went over to Rene and Cisco.

“Nice to meet you both.” Cisco held out his hand.

“Thanks.” Winn blushed and shook his hand before Jimmy smiled and took his hand too.

“A pleasure to make your acquaintance.” Jimmy smiled.

“Sure thing.” Cisco smiled back.

“Sorry about him.  I can build a body, I can control it.  But... I refuse to shape the personality like my dad did.” Winn blushed.

“Nothing wrong with letting him have a mind of his own and free will.” Cisco nodded.

“I can feel emotions from him.” Rene frowned.

“Oh?” Winn looked at Jimmy.  “I knew you could mimic emotions I didn’t know you actually felt them.”

“Oh I feel a great deal of things.” Jimmy smiled as he stat down.

“That you do.” Rene nodded.

“I never expected that...” Winn blushed as he sat down.

“I have a feeling there’s a lot of things you didn’t expect.” Cisco smiled and patted him on the back.

“Okay, Rory Regan.” A slim black haired boy stood up and walked up to the stage.  “Power?”

“Symbiotic magic.” Oliver and John leaned forward at this.  They’d heard there was a new magic user coming, but hadn’t heard what his power was.

“What do you link with?”

“A mystical cloak that’s been passed down my family for many generations.  I’m the latest to wear the cloak.”

“And where is the cloak?”

“Right now he’s being my shirt.” Rory said plainly.  “Projectiles are the best test.”

“Okay, Projectile.” A series of shots came from the wall and as they neared Rory, his shirt seemed to shred before transforming into a ragged bit of clothing warping him head to toe, tentacles made of fabric shot out from his back and caught each projectile till the test was over and the suit reshaped itself into a shirt.  “Impressive.  Sidekick for now, but I don’t think you’ll be staying there long.”

“Thank you sir.”

“Axel Walker!” The room went silent as Axel stood up.  His hair spiked and his cloths a little too big for him as he walked over to the stage and stood on it.  “Power?”

“Adaptation.”

“In what sense?”

“I change to be what ever I need to be to survive.” Axel looked at him.

“Does that include other powers?”

“It can.”

“Car.” The car dropped and Axel threw his arms up, the car hitting his hands and shredding around him like he was a hot knife cutting through butter.  “Okay... Sidekick....” In truth he wasn’t sure what the kid would end up, but he was hesitant to put him in Switch or Hero.  He’d heard about how his father had gone insane when he’d been placed into Switch and had ended up becoming a super villain.  Axel nodded and walked off towards the other Sidekicks.

“It’s kind of slim pickings for new switches this year.” Mon frowned as he looked at how there was still only the two of them.

“Yeah.” Caitlin nodded.

“Barry Allen.” Barry grinned and zipped forward to the stage at super speed.  “Super speed I take it?” Coach stood there.

“Speed, and limited lightning related powers.” Barry zipped back and forth.

“Car.”  Barry zipped faster and faster before causing a series of lightning bolts to form off of him and throw the car away from him.  “Not bad kid, Hero.” Barry beamed and zipped over to Kara and Sara.

“Nice going Barry.” Sara smiled.

“And that’s the kid you have to take off of Queen’s hands?” Mick asked as he sat with Len.

“Lucky me.” Len smirked.

“You have odd taste.”

“I found Ray for you.”

“Yeah, but that didn’t stop you from playing with him a little first.”

“Finder’s fee.” Len looked at his friend.

“What ever.” Mick crossed his arms.

“Don’t worry about it.  He’s in love with you, and you’re in love with him., that’s all that counts.” Len shrugged.

“Yeah.” Mick smiled before turning back to the stage.

“Iris West” Iris got up and made her way to the stage.

“Telepathy.” She smiled.  “Yes I am.” She nodded.  “No, not telekinesis.  Just the mind reading.” She frowned.  “Not that I can think of.” Then she smiled.  “Thanks.” She went and walked over to the Switch section to sit with Caitlin and Mon.

“We don’t have any other telepaths do we?” No one raised their hand.  “Good.” Coach cleared this throat.  “Wally West.” He blinked and watched Wally zip forward at speed but slip and go skidding face first across the platform and almost falling off the other end.  “Right, Sidekick...”

“But...”

“Kid, you need the practice.”

“Okay.” Wally slowly walked over to the rather large sidekick class.

“Jesse Wells?” Jesse zipped forwards.  “Another speedster.  Lovely...” The Coach pinched the bridge of his nose.  “So impress me?” She nodded, and zipped around creating a cyclone and started shrinking it before she lost control and it blew her off the stage, and into the stands.  She blushed as she looked down at the Coach.  “Switch.” He pointed.  She nodded and zipped along.  “Right.  More speedsters this year?” No hands came up.  “Good.  Very good.  Only three of you left.  Oh just perfect.  Nate Haywood, get up here.”

Nate got up and walked up to the stage.  “Hi.”

“Power.”

“Metallokinesis.”

“Which kinds of metals.”

“The ones in my body.” Nate blushed.

“I’m sorry....” Coach looked at him.

“Sort of like you with I’m guessing the carbon in your body?” He looked up at the Coach.

“Okay show me what you got.” Nate morphed into a living steal form of himself.  “Not bad.  Car.” The car fell down and Nate caught it.  “Interesting.  Slight super strength in this form, not bad.  Switch.”  He figured the Kid would be a Hero before midterms.  Nate put the car down and shifted back to normal before heading over to the group of Switches.  “Lisa Snart.” Lisa got up and went to the stage and looked worried.  “Power?”

“Picnokinesis.” She said quietly.

“Other objects or yourself?”

“Mostly myself.  Sometimes other objects...” She looked down.

“More or less dense?”

“Both, I just usually default to less.”

“Okay.  Car.” Lisa looked up and the car dropped on her.  She simply walked through it and re-solidified her form.  “Hero.” She beamed and headed over to the group of heroes.  “And our last Freshman.  Thea Queen.”

“Yeah small problem.  I don’t actually have powers yet.” Thea stood up and moved towards the stage.  “You’d think between Malcom Merlyn and Moira Queen I’d have something.  But so far not a damn power.” She crossed her arms and looked up at the Coach.

“Then we’ll start you out at a Sidekick and try again if and when your power comes in.”

“Thanks.” She saluted and walked off to the Sidekicks.

“That’s got to be rough man.” Kal said to Tommy and Oliver.

“Dad’s going to be pissed.” Tommy sighed.

“Mom keeps telling him that Thea’ll come into her own eventually.” Oliver tried to assure Tommy.

“Yeah, and dad’s really know for his patience.”

“Point.” Oliver nodded.

Ray came up to Mick and offered him the lunch box he’d packed for him.  “No sprouts this time?” Mick glanced at him.

“A muffin and a fruit roll up.” Ray blushed slight.

“Good.” Mick leaned over and kissed Ray before patting the seat next to him.  “I brought yours too.” He picked up a lunch box he’d packed and handed it over to Ray.  He blinked at it for a moment before opening it.  A box full of healthy lunch choices and a brownie.  He smiled and kissed Mick deeply.

“I’ll be over there congratulating my sister on making Hero.” Len got up and walked away.  Truth be told he thought their little romantic gestures to one another like learning about each other’s lunch choices was good for the pair of them, but it didn’t really change the fact that he didn’t want to be in the middle of them making out.  Ray waved him off and dove back into kissing his boyfriend while Len went over to the heroes section and smiled at his sister.  “You made it!” He smiled as he hugged her.

“I was so scared.” She moved her blonde hair out of her eyes.

“Nothing to it.  I knew you’d make it.” He hugged his sister tight.  Well aware that Barry and the others were looking at him as he did.  “Glad to have another hero in the family.  Ray’ll be sorry he wont see you in Hero Support.  But Mick and I have a small party planned.” He smiled brightly at her, watching her blush.  “You three are welcome to come too if you want, I have a feeling we’ll be seeing a lot of you this year.” Len smiled at Barry, Kara, and Sara.

“Okay.” Kara smiled back.

“I’ll be right back.” Len squeezed his sister one last time before walking over to the Switch section.  “Excuse me, I was wondering if you wanted to join our little party.” Len looked at Caitlin who blinked at him.

“Why me?” She blushed slightly.

“We Cryokinetics need to stick together.” He let his skin turn white as frost and his hair became solid white as he looked at her.

“You’ve got cold powers too?” She blinked.

“Yep.  They teach all us elemental based powers together because there’s a lot of cross over in control.” Len powered down.  “So I figured it’d be nice if you at least knew some of the people in class.  He turned to Nate.  “You’re welcome to tag along too.  I don’t know if they’re going to count your power or not.  But they might and it’s always better to know someone in class.” Len stuck out his hand and shook Nate’s hand.  “Leonard Snart.  Most people just call me Len.  We’re going to head out right after the orientation meeting.  The reps for each classification will want to talk to you, see about who you can be paired with to make sure your first year isn’t so bad.” He smiled.  “You guys will probably have Tony as your elemental adviser for Switch classes.  Because he’s a senior and has had to master multiple elements.”

“Who’s our Rep?” Nate looked around.

“You see the guy in the green hood over there with the glasses working on his tablet?” Len pointed.

“Yeah.”

“Hartley Rathaway.  He’s a Sonokinetic.  He’s a Sophomore and a pretty good guy.  And has a genius level IQ, so I’m pretty sure he’ll match you up with people who can help you.”

“Cool.” Nate nodded.

“Don’t worry, if you have any problems or need to talk to anyone he’s a good listener.  And he can keep a secret.  And if you need help with your powers you can go to either Tony if you get paired with him or to our Teacher.  Mr. Peace is a good guy.”

“Oh god.” Caitlin sighed.  “Uncle Warren is teaching the elementals?”

“You know him?” Len blinked.

“Yeah, he and my mom and dad went here and were best friends.”

“Who...?”

“Layla Snow and Will Stronghold.” Len’s face went blank as he took that in.

“Demeter and Take Down?” Len asked quietly.

“Yep.” She blushed slightly.  “Nice.  Yeah, Mr. Peace is our elemental teacher.  But if you’re anything like Mick you’ll probably need more then one adviser.” He pointed to his friend who was finally eating up in the stands.  “And they’re not afraid to go cross class if your power needs special training.  He’s getting some training from a Senior Switch even though Mick’s a Hero.”

“So best fit wins?” Caitlin nodded.

“Yep.  But I’ll leave it to Hart to explain.” Len smiled at her.  “See you two after.” They nodded and Iris tilted her head but watched him leave.

“What?” Caitlin asked quietly while watching Len walk away.

“He’s got his mind on Barry.”

“Isn’t it rude to read people with out permission?” Jesse leaned forward.

“You don’t want a Freshman Telepath in your head, don’t think loud thoughts.” She smiled.  “And his mind is moving about as fast as you, Barry, and Wally’s do.  I picked out a few things. Mostly that Oliver asked him to look out for Barry...” Iris frowned.  “Or something like that.”

“Why doesn’t that surprise me.” Mon rolled his eyes.  “Oliver trying to dump Barry off on someone else.”

“What do you...” Jesse frowned before glancing over at Barry and seeing the way his eyes seemed to be drawn to Oliver.  “Oh that.  Yeah, makes sense.” She shrugged.

“I’d keep an eye on that one though.” Iris kept her eyes on Len as he moved.  “Slippery doesn’t begin to describe him.”

“Maybe.  But until he does something I’m going to take his offer at face value.  You can’t always judge someone by their thoughts alone.  It’s what they do with those thoughts that counts.” Caitlin smiled softly.

“True enough.  If I judged everyone based on what they thought alone, I’d never trust boys at all.” Iris shrugged.  


“So most of you know me.  My name is Oliver Queen and I’m going to be your Hero Class Representative.  I’m going to try to set you all up with a Student Mentor as well as being the one you can ask questions to if you have any questions or problems.” Oliver was walking down the hall with the four new Heroes in tow.  “You’ll be issued school tablets for your homework and classwork.  They’re gene locked and secured to your biometric data.  So if you develop new powers, mutate, or transform, your going to need to see one of the school’s technologically gifted Staff or Students to create a work around for you to use your tablets.” Oliver walked them towards a room where Tommy was up near the ceiling holding a dome and looking away.  “Okay, look at Tommy and NOT the dome till he looks at the dome.” They all looked directly at Tommy, out of the corner of their eyes they could see a dark haired boy with glasses tilt them down and fire a stream of light from his eyes that hit the dome creating a swirl of blues and purples before shouting at Tommy to close it.  He closed the dome and they looked at the colors swirling in and out.

“That’s Tommy Merlyn up there.” Oliver pointed.  “Over there is Roy Bivolo, his eyes emit powerful bursts of colored light, that looking at can cause your emotional centers of your brain to be over loaded with what ever feeling he wants you to feel.  So he wears the glasses most of the time to prevent that.” They walked over to a table where a lanky blonde boy was creating a small tornado out of supplies and creating a pink thunder cloud that went over the drink bowl and rained down punch.

“This is Mark Mardon.  He’s part of the team that works to keep the outside weather from effecting the school.” Mark nodded and waved at them.  “Most of you know Kara’s cousin Kal.” Oliver nodded over to Kal who was sitting there talking to a caramel colored woman with her long black hair pulled back into a pony tail showing off her elegant neck.  “He’s talking to Amaya, her power is to mystically channel any animal spirit.” Oliver added.

“Can she do animals form other planets?” Kara asked before turning to the girl.

“I’d have to have seen them at some point or been to the planet.” Amaya shrugged.  “But probably.”

“Hang on...” Kara flipped through images on her Kryptonian Crystal Pad until she came to a picture of a Dragon.  “We had these on Krypton, we used to ride them in a game kind of like soccer.” Amaya touched the picture and then put a hand on Kara’s hand.

“I call to the spirit of this beast, come to me....” Her eyes turned blue as a ghostly image of the Dragon appeared around her and she flew into the air on unseen wings and breathed fire.  She swooped down and landed on the back of her chair, grinning.  “Oh I’m going to like having this in combat training later.”

“Right...” Oliver’s eye twitched slightly.  “This is John Constantine, he and I are magic users.” John nodded to them before cupping his hands together and starting to chant.  Oliver matched his motions and words, circling one another, almost stalking around, the words getting some how darker before they threw the energy from their hands at each other and in the collision it created a night time haze on the walls and a map of the stars over laid over that.  “You two okay?” Oliver looked at Kara and Kal.”

“Yeah.  It’s when it’s used against us that it hurts.” Kara spoke for them.

“Good to know.” Oliver smiled leading them over to a new area.  “This is Ronnie Raymond.  He’s got a recently discovered ability known as atomic fusion.  He and Martin Stein are capable of fusing into a single being and gaining new powers from the fusion of their atoms.  Though last year they met Jax who happens to have the same power, he’s a Switch himself while Martin’s a sidekick.  But they’re working on a three way fusion.”

“It will happen!” Ronnie grinned.

“Then Lisa, I think you’re the only one who knows these characters.” Oliver smiled.  “This is Lisa’s older brother Leonard Snart, a cool customer who’s powers work something like Caitlin’s powers.”

“Only slightly.  She can command cold as well.  I merely control Ice.” Len smiled.  “And call me Len.  Most people do.  Except for Ollie here.” He smirked.

“Right....” Oliver gave him a look.  “Then we have Mick, his adopted brother, he’s a Pyropath.” Oliver saw the confusion on the faces of some of the Freshmen.

“I can control Fire, I just don’t produce it.  At least not while I’m conscious.” Mick stood up.  “I’m what happens when you have a multiple personality disorder and powers.  While I’m in control of the body and the other me is asleep I can control fires but not produce them.  I’m told the other me has the power to produce fire and control it.  He’s also a bit of a rage monster, so if I get knocked unconscious at any time, your first priority becomes to immobilize and contain me.” He picked up a device from the table in front of him.  “This is a portable shield matrix.  It’s job is to stop me from becoming unconscious when in a fight.  So long as this little light is green I’m me.  It turns red, you have until that me takes over to get me isolated and my powers contained.”

“I have hypoglycemia because of my powers.” Barry spoke up.  “I have to eat a lot or I have black outs, and can’t use my powers or they’ll kill me.” He held up a small bag.  “I have to keep a bag of snacks on me for when my blood sugar starts to dip.”

“Thanks.” Mick smiled at him.

“It’s like Dad always says, having something you can’t control about yourself doesn’t make you different, it makes you normal.” Barry smiled back.

“This is one of my girlfriends Laurel Lance, Sara’s big sister.” Oliver turned the conversation towards her.  She smiled.

“I have the ability to turn my voice into a weapon.  So I try not to shout.” She smiled softly.  “Unless I want Ollie to know he’s pissed me off.”

“I’m sorry, one of?  How many girls are you dating now that you’re not sleeping with my brother?” Lisa turned to Oliver.

“Two.  Laurel and Felicity.  The three of us are dating each other.”

“Oh.” Lisa nodded.  “Ok.”

“And it means I always have someone I can talk to when I’m mad at one of them or one of them is mad at me.” Laurel smiled.  “And over there is Linda Park, she’s got photonic control.” Laurel nodded to where Linda was sitting.

“Hey.” Linda waved her hand making the magic stars sparkle.

“Linda, you seen David?” Oliver looked around.

“Hang on.” Linda clapped her hands together generating a bright, nearly blinding light before pointing at a spot and hitting it with light, making a boy appear.  He was standing there in nothing but a speedo that left very little to the imagination.

“You really thought you could be invisible the whole party and get away with it?” Oliver smiled.

“It was working.” David grinned.

“David Singh, resident nudist and invisible boy.” Oliver rolled his eyes.

“Fabric has to be under a few millimeters to get cloaked when I go invisible.” David explained.  “So to really get away using my powers I have to either be naked or wear really skin tight latex.  And I figured nude Mon-El earlier was more then enough nudity on the first day of school.” David chuckled.  “And as for the nudist comment, you know damn well I started wearing this suit after my boyfriend invented it.” David grinned.  Though I think he’s a lot more voyeuristic then he lets one.” He smirked.  “Now if you’ll excuse me I have a surprise to deliver.” David vanished again.

“I don’t even want to know.” Oliver shook his head.  


“Okay if you’ll fallow me.” Hartley smiled as he walked down the hall with the new switches behind him.  “So how many of you know Cisco?”All of them but Nate raised their hand.  “Good.  While his power works off of vibrations, mine, works off of sound waves.  I can manipulate sound waves and use them to my advantage.  I’m also a super genius.  But being a Switch is just a better fit for me.  “Now here’s our meeting room.” He put his hand on a spot on the wall and it scanned his hand print and they came into a hidden room that was a LOT bigger then he really should be.

“Hey Hart, I got the specks up for the new quantum core.” Felicity smiled, her hair black and short as she displayed layers of code in front of her.

“Some of you probably know Felicity Smoak.  She’s a Technopath.  She’s our resident tech head. I work with her, but when it comes to the digital space, she’s better then I’ll ever be.” He smiled as she grinned.

“God it must eat you up sometimes to say that.” She leaned in and kissed his cheek.

“I’m getting better.” He blushed.

“Yes you are.” She nodded.

“I’ll be the one coding your tablets, so if you have any tech problems, bring them to me.” Felicity waved as she headed to her corner where the wifi was the strongest in the room.

“And, Shawna you around?” Hartley called before poofs of smoke indicated she was moving before bamfing right in front of Hartley.  “Shawna Baez, teleporter.” He stood his ground.

“And probably the only one other then Jason who’s seen much combat.” She smiled.

“Is Jason around?” Hartley asked quietly.

“He’s up in his study.”

“We’ll get to him last then.” Hartley nodded before turning the sofa where Alex was sitting reading with a boy who was facing away from them.  “Most of you know Alex, our resident Biomancer.” Alex nodded.

“Lovely, more time with my brother.” Alex grinned at Mon who rolled his eyes at her.

“And this is Jonah Hex.” The boy closed his book and turned towards them, showing an almost melted looking side to his face.

“Take it in now.” Jonah looked at them with his mostly exposed eye.  “I’m the lucky bastard who’s immune to every power that’s come down the pike so far.”

“Then how....” Nate touched his own cheek.

“Sign of my power. I started into Junior high and my face started melting away.  So far it’s only contained to this side.  But who knows.” He shrugged.

“And don’t let him fool you, it makes him look even more handsome.” A tall boy in a trench coat walked up and kissed Jonah before sitting down with him and opening his own book.  “Rip Hunter, Chronomancer.  Time is my mistress, this strapping lad is my beau, and I’m currently starting my eight year of senior year.” He smiled at them.

“How are you...” Caitlin started.

“Oh it’s easy Caitlin.  I fold time around myself, and I wanted to learn everything I can, so I take different classes each fold.  I’m taking all ap classes this year.  I did a couple of them the last fold and they seemed to be interesting.” He shrugged.  “You’re bound to see different versions of me wandering the halls.  Not all of them are going to know exactly what’s going on.  Earlier folds are still getting to know you, while later folds like myself have known you each about eight years and know what you’re capable of.  I hold to a strict non interference code when it comes to changing what to me is history.  Jonah’s the only one outside of me who can keep track of the me’s.  And while this is his first time going through this year, just like it is yours, we’ve had seven beautiful years together this year.  So I’m looking forwards to it all again.” He smiled.

“Don’t mind him.  If you talk to him for too long your head is going to hurt.” Hartley lead them away, down a hall and into a gym.  There was a group of boys in basketball shorts and sneakers playing basketball, each had a number written on their chest, while one of them had the letter P.  “That’s Danton Black, he’s able to self replicate himself.  Nice guys.” He smiled and headed on over to a tall white guy and averaged height black guy were lifting weights, taking turns spotting for one another.   “This is Tony Woodward, also known as Girder.  He absorbs elements and becomes made out of that element.  He often uses metal.  But he can become other elements as well.  I’ll probably have him as your adviser Caitlin and you too Nate.  Because his metal form is like yours.”

“Neat.” Nate smiled.

“And this is Jefferson Jackson, most of us call him Jax.” Jax waved.  “Wicked smart, gifted with engineering, and he’s got the power of atomic fusion.”

“You’re just being all kinds of sweet today Hart.” Jax grinned.

“What can I say, we got a big boost to our numbers and I’m happy about that.” Jax nodded and went back to his lifting.  “Anyone seen Roy today?” Hartley looked around.

“He’s at his morning job.  He’ll be here later.” One of Danton’s clones turned around.

“Perks of having afternoon classes I suppose.” Hartley shrugged.  “That’s everyone but Jason.” Hartley sighed.  “This way.” He lead them back out of the gym and up to the library on the second floor of their little club house.  He went to the occult section and whispered something the others didn’t catch and the books shifted into a doorway.  “Jason Blood is an immortal cursed into being by Merlin himself for his betrayal at Camelot.  In the curse, Merlin’s personal demon was bound to Jason’s soul, the demon’s magic and life blood gives Jason both formidable magic, as well as his immortality.  But every time he reaches his limit, uses the biggest world saving spells he can, his body suffers a rebound of the spell and he returns to the age of a Freshman.  He’s spent the last four years replenishing his powers and growing back to the age to be a senior.” Hartley knocked on a door and it opened revealing a shaggy haired red head with a single curly lock of pure white hair floating above a magic circle.

“Hart, good to see you.  These the new recruits?” He smiled.

“Yes they are Jason.”

“Excellent.” Jason floated down from where he floating and looking at them.  “Any of you magic users?” They shook their head.  “Pity.  I sense new magic though.”

“Symbiotic magic from a sidekick  And a kid who makes golems and gave his golem sentient life.”

“Interesting times.” Jason smiled.  “But what Hart was telling you is true.  I betrayed the greatest king our world has ever known and for that betrayal I shall live forever bearing my shame and my demon.  And this added bit of my curse is to keep me from believing I have the power to over come this curse.” He smiled.  “I’ve gone through puberty over four hundred times.  Mostly it’s a waiting game.  And it grows tiresome.  It’s almost as much of a wait as the helm has been through.” He pointed to a helmet on a pedestal.  “The Helm of Nabu takes the life of whom ever wears it and makes them the embodiment of Nabu on Earth.  We’ve been having lengthy debates of logic while we wait for his next host to arrive to the school.”

“Is that happening this year?” Hartley frowned.

“Nabu can feel the herald moving towards him.  We wont know until the new host arrives.” He shrugged.

“Lovely, another waiting game.” Hartley sighed.  “Anyways.  That’s everyone.  Feel free to wander around and get to know anyone you want.  I...” Hartley stopped talking.  “I’ll be in my work shop.” Hartley smiled and walked out of the room.

“Uh, did anyone else notice that his ear was being tugged?” Iris asked and everyone turned towards her.  “What?”  


“So the name’s Jon Diggle, most everyone calls me Digg.  I’m your class rep.  Welcome to Hero Support.” He looked around and hit a spot on the wall before the wall opened up and it opened to a common area.  “There’s really not that many of us right now.  Most of the seniors have been out in the field getting some hands on training so there’s you guys.  Then there’s Ray Palmer over there.” He pointed to Ray who waved from where he was working on something.  “And that’s Curtis Holt working with him.”  Curtis waved, technology floating and going to Ray as he needed it.  “Where’s Martin guys?”

“Up in his lab.” Curtis pointed up.

“See Ray’s a Technokinetic, so he can use the machines he makes like they’re a part of him.  While Curtis is a Technopath, and can manipulate and build tech with his mind.  They usually hang out down here in their defacto lab.  Martin’s power wasn’t apparent till Ronnie and Jax came along and they triggered his powers.  He’s got atomic fusion, and needs to fuse with one or the other one of them to stay alive.  He’s also a super genius and spends most of his time up there in his theoretical lab.” He smiled.  “And that leaves me.  I don’t know what my powers are yet.  So far I haven’t demonstrated anything.  But I’m not so worried.  Martin was my age when he found his powers.  And we get rescues and accidental powers coming in every few years.”

“Rescues?” Thea swallowed, happy to hear she wasn’t the only one who didn’t know what her power was yet.

“There are technically three schools.” They all blinked at him.  “General Eiling runs arguably the worst school for the gifted.  He calls it the Program.  He takes powered kids and effectively kidnaps them, forces them into slavery for the US Military and forces them to use their powers as he sees fit.  We do our best to rescue who we can.  But sometimes he gets his hooks in too deep or the other school gets to them first.” Digg sighed.  “The other School is Hive, it’s run by Amanda Waller and her nut jobs.  They turn out morally bankrupt super villains who are supposed to be loyal only to Waller.  But from time to time a batch makes it out that are rogue even from her control.  And both Eiling and Waller have been known to try to raid this school.  They’ve never succeeded to get a student off the grounds.  But they keep trying.  Hell bent that we have too much free will for either of their liking.” Digg looked at them.  “You have to be careful.  And that’s why we promote inter class and grade communication and friendships so people notice if someone’s missing.  We want to make sure no one gets taken into slavery of one flavor or another.”

“Uh, I heard that guy Leonard Snart talking about student advisers?” Rory bit his lip.

“Yeah, we try to place you with advisers who have similar powers.  Yours is a magic suit right?” He nodded.  “We might have some people who will fit the bill.  If not I’ll have to make a list of who to talk to to see who your powers mix well with.  I need to check the roster of who’s going to be on campus this term.  But until-”

“WARNING INCOMING RESCUE FROM THE PROGRAM!  ALL HEALERS AND MEDICAL AID TO LANDING PAD 3, WE HAVE INCOMING!”

“Axel, I’m going to take you.  We’ll find out if your adaptation ability can be used to give the healing that’s needed.” Digg lead Axel out of the room and they took off running.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Freshman Class:  
> Barry - Speed | Sara - Myokinesis | Lisa - Picnokinesis | Kara-Zorel - Alien | Caitlin - Psychrokinesis / Cryokinesis | Nate - Metallokinesis | Jesse - Speed | Mon-El - Alien | Iris - Telepathy | Cisco - Seismokinesis | Wally - Speed | Rory - Symbiotic Magic | Rene - Empathy / Pathokinesis | James - Lutumkinesis | Winn - Marrionetakinesis | Axel - Situational Adaptation | Thea - Unknown
> 
> Sophomore Class:  
> Mick - Pryopathy | Ronnie - Fusion | Mark - Atmokinesis | Hartley - Sonokinesis | Felicity - Technopathy | Jonah - Invulnerability | Alex - Biokinesis | Ray - Technokinesis | Jon - Unknown | Curtis - Technopath | David - Invisibility | Jax - Fusion
> 
> Junior Class:  
> Oliver - Magic | Laurel - Audiokinesis | Len - Cryokinesis | John - Magic | Kal-El - Alien | Tommy - Flight | Roy H. - Super Strength | Danton - Cytokinesis | Martin - Fusion | Hannibal - Shape Shifting | Linda - Photokinesis
> 
> Senior Class:  
> Amaya - Magic/Shaman | Roy B. - Chromokinesis | Jason - Magic/Immortality | Tony - Elementumkinesis | Shawna - Teleportation | Rip - Chronokinesis
> 
> Staff:  
> Larry - Rock Transformation | Warren - Pyrokinesis 
> 
> Adults:  
> Layla - Florakinesis | Henry - Speed | J’onn - Alien | Harrison - Super Genius | Evo - Evolutionary | Malcom - Immortality | Moira - Magic | Quentin - Magic | Joe West - Retired 
> 
> Heroes:  
> Barry, Sara, Oliver, Laurel, Len, Mick, Lisa, Ronnie, John, Amaya, Kara, Kal, Mark, Roy B., Tommy, Linda, David
> 
> Switches:  
> Caitlin, Hartley, Felicity, Nate, Jonah, Jess, Jason, Roy H., Mon, Alex, Tony, Danton, Shawna, Iris, Jax, Rip, 
> 
> Sidekicks:  
> Cisco, Ray, Martin, Wally, Jon, Rory, Rene, Curtis, James, Winn, Axel, Thea, Hannibal


	3. Healing Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some have been rescued, some have been injured. It's time to focus in and get some answers!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ya’ll don’t even know how close you were to seeing this story deleted last week. It was one thing after another. First it glitched and erased the first chapter and replaced it with the second chapter, so there were two second chapters. Then the coding wouldn’t accept. Then it glitched and told me the site was out. Then it said there was just the first chapter. Then I had trouble with the images, which if you’re like me and save to pdf to read offline, is still messed up, I have to go back in and fix it. And then someone very helpfully pointed out in chapter two I messed up Ronnie’s last name. It was one of those, ONE MORE THING AND I’M DONE, sort of situations.
> 
> But that’s why I post on Saturday’s before I got home for my day off, spend my day off offline to give you guys a chance to read and me a chance to calm down from the stress of posting, and then I look Sunday night / Monday afternoon at your comments. And not bad. Only one remotely negative comment. Which it was full of helpful criticism. And I wanted to address a couple things from that here.
> 
> First. Some people identify as gender neutral. And Xe and Xim is their preferred pronouns. They also happen to be what I like to use, because them, they, and it feels dehumanizing to me. So when Hannibal is in the story I’m going to use xe. Sorry, that’s more a personal preference thing. Though I do thank you for your input. And the chance to talk about this.
> 
> Next, and I get this a lot actually. -points up to the tags- you see the AU? That stands for alternate universe. So there’s a reason they seem out of character to you. They are out of character. And they’re supposed to be. I started putting the AU tag specifically because I used to get this topic a lot when people didn’t act 100% the way someone’s head cannon or actual cannon put someone. AU means they don’t have to conform to any established portrayals thus far.
> 
> Now the dialog. I’ll grant you I think I suck at dialog. Frankly, when I try to talk dirty I think I’m probably hands down the worst at it on the planet. But it seems to turn the other person on so -shrugs-. Maybe they’re just humoring me. I honestly believe my dialog can be better. But have you seen the movie universe this is loosely based off of? It’s full of points that make me go, WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT!, as a writer. As for how real people talk about sex and relationships. You and I have clearly lead different lives, because a LOT of how my characters talk is lifted off of my friends and interactions with real people. I’ve seen the certificates of authenticity, they’re real. I’ve even had friends who were actual prostitutes who talked about sex and stuff LESS then my friends who were quote unquote normal. So I’m just asking for an open mind about the dialog. I’m better at painting a scene with words then the actual talking parts. Probably because I’m socially awkward and could use a lot more practice.
> 
> Now, I addressed the bit about the power blurbs in my reply to you. But that really stuck in my craw for some reason. Bare in mind I was checking my messages while in a Walmart in the middle of the night wandering through the pet section trying to decide on a bag of treats for my cat while typing on my tablet. I detest typing no my tablet. Which is why I don’t do it often if I can help it. Big hands, tiny touch screen buttons, it’s a bad mix. That a side, have you seen the movie? I mean I’ve seen it four times, and recently watched it before writing the first chapter of this JUST to get a feel for the universe again and to get a critical look at the mechanics. You meet the main character and his best friend and his family. No one other then about 5 characters actually GET full names. You have a load of interactions with nameless people who mostly talk about their powers. Then you have power placement where it’s, my name is x and I can do y. And then the story shifts to focusing on the main character and how everyone orbits around him.
> 
> See the rest at the end notes, as well as ACTUAL end notes....

Axel wasn’t sure what he was doing.  Rushing with Digg through the school to a large landing pad where several other healers and staff were located, he noticed there were two people laying on stretchers.  The first seemed to be an adult, the second seemed to be a kid they’d saved.  He walked over to the kid, could see how badly he was hurt.  Lots of cuts, burns, injection sights.  It was the smell of the burned flesh that took him back to the days he lived with his dad.  How he’d tried to activate his powers and had slowly tortured him, both trying to activate the powers he figured were maybe inside him, and to hopefully drive him as nuts as he himself was.  Axel shivered.  But he reached out to the boy and put his hands on him.  His mind shut down as he touched him and his power began to adapt.   
  
Meta human.  Gene active. Technorganic ingratiation.  Some of this his body had done, most of it was done to him.  The red and yellow blood cells were working to repair his organic parts, and his green blood cells were working to repair his tech parts.  But they were impeded by the drugs in his system.  Axel focused his mind and felt the atoms of the drug breaking down.  He could feel the kid’s systems picking up the slack now that they weren’t being turned sluggish by the drugs.  He felt himself growing weaker, and started to realize it was like the girl on the bus.  Alex he thought her name was.  She’d healed that kid on the bus and it’d hurt her to do it.  He closed his eyes and focused on getting the burns as healed as he could.  He was starting to black out when someone pulled him off.   
  
“The hell do you think you’re doing kid?” An adult in costume was looking at him.   
  
“H-healing him...” Axel’s head lulled to the side.  He was vaguely aware of anything as the world seemed to go dark around the edges.  Who ever the guy in the black suit was he was a worry for another day.  Axel barely had time to mutter.  “Sorry... I can’t...” Before going utterly limp, the powers having overloaded his system and if he’d been awake he’d probably have been mortified, because unlike Alex’s power that went out of her for absorbing too much, Axel’s version had kept it in him and his cloths simply dissolved off of his body leaving him hanging naked in that adult’s grasp.   
  
“Damn it.” The guy wrapped his cloak around Axel and carried him to the nurse’s station.  He used his powers to generate a sense of darkness around the boy’s naked body so no one could see his body as he was carried to the area the other two were headed as soon as they were stable enough to be moving.  “That was a fool thing you did there kid.” The guy muttered as he brought in Axel and laid him down on the bed, waiting till he was covered by the blanket to let the light go back to normal around the kid.  He explained what was going on and the Nurse nodded as she went about checking him out.  She checked her tablet as she went.  At power placement his records had been sorted and tagged indicating what powers he had, if any, and where he’d been sorted.  She was adding the medical notes about the variation on this power.  It’d help to catalog his powers as he learned them.   
  
Evolutionary powers were rare and dangerous to the user.  They seldom had the natural biological systems that compensated for the powers.  They could just replicate the organs or systems responsible for having the powers.  And it meant they were constantly altering their own biology.  Something that wreaked havoc on their genetics.  Of the twelve who had ever shown this power, the Nurse could only think of two who were still alive.  Evo and his ability to hyper evolve those he physically touched, and this young boy who apparently changed himself when he touched others or the situation called for it.  She waited until she was done collecting data to send out two pages.   
  
“Obsedian, do I need to check to see if there was any fall out from the boy’s power on you?” She glanced at the adult hero who was standing there.   
  
“No, no.” He shook his cloaked head.   
  
“Then...”   
  
“I’ve arrested his father... in fact I’m the reason his dad’s currently in jail.  Between me and Henry Allen, we’ve pretty much made sure this kid’s dad isn’t ever leaving prison.”   
  
“The Trickster was a dangerous man.”   
  
“Still is.  I heard he drove his last shrink to hang himself in his office.”   
  
“Sounds like his son isn’t the only one with powers.” She frowned.   
  
“Maybe.  We’ve never tested to be for sure.  We know he was good with technology and science.  We figured he was just a little nuts.  There’s even reports of him experimenting on the boy.”   
  
“That would be conclusive with the medical records I have on file.” She nodded as she went about her tasks.   
  
“I just... some how I feel responsible for the boy.”   
  
“I understand.” She smiled as she walked over.  “I’ll send a copy of the file to your pad later.  But you might want to have a sit down talk with the boy later.”   
  
“And say what, sorry your old man’s a nut job, and I had to lock him away so that he’d never hurt anyone else?  Like that’s any comfort to the boy.”   
  
“You took away his abuser.  I have a feeling he might be more receptive to talking to you and Mr. Allen when the time is right.  But I also have a feeling that he’s going to have to see the school councilor regularly.”   
  
“I’ll talk to him.”   
  
“Thank you.” She smiled and gave him a quick hug before he drifted out of the room and taking his dark aura with him.  She looked down at Axel and felt a great swell of pity for the burdens heaped upon such a fragile life.  But that thought was lost in the latest arrival as the teams began bringing in the only two wounded people from the mission, and in short order both students arrived.  She smiled softly at John Diggle who was looking a little frightened to see Axel in the hospital bed and she turned to Hannibal Bates.   
  
“Gentlemen.” She smiled at both of them.  “I called you down here because Axel Walker over taxed his abilities in healing the new arrival and nearly damaged himself.”  She looked at the pair of them.  “I’m sure as his class rep you probably had someone in mind to help teach him about his powers, but I’m assigning Hannibal to him.” She handed Hannibal a data chart.   
  
“His power is like mine?” Hannibal flipped through the data and frowned.  “Oh.  Yeah I can see where I can be of help.” Xe nodded at the nurse.  When xe had first started shifting into other kids with other powers, xe had had to learn to control not only xis powers but the powers of others.  Such as xe was capable of demonstrating.  While in other people’s forms their duplicated powers were always greatly reduced.  Xe was still working on that.  “I’ll wait here for him to wake up.  Are you staying?” He looked to Digg.   
  
“I have to go get debriefed on why he was there and what I thought an untrained student would be able to do.  I mean he did save the new arrival’s life, but...” Digg sighed and shook his head.  “I’ll be back to check on him, text me if he wakes up before I get back.”   
  
“Will do.” Hannibal nodded and sat down.  Xe pulled out xis tablet and started practicing taking different shapes, nothing too extreme.  Just small cosmetic changes at first.  Xe was still working on gradual changes instead of full body transformations.   
  
Axel for his part was deep in a dream.  A nightmarish landscape of the pin his father kept him in while he experimented on him.  The bombs he’d been strapped to to see if he’d survive the explosion.  The acids poured on him or he was forced to drink.  The box was set for flame throwers this time, and in the pit of Axel’s stomach he knew he’d have to face that smell.  Cooked meat that made you both hungry and sick to smell it at the same time.  All the while he readied himself for pains that his mind couldn’t let go of, he looked out at the nightmarish hell he was in and frowned.  That wasn’t his dad.  The guy was using the wrong hand to do things.  He kept looking at the guy and finally found his voice.   
  
“Who are you?” The cage seemed to stop moving and the flame throwers seemed to sag.   
  
“Who do you think I am boy?” The man wearing his father’s face asked.   
  
“Not my father.  He’s left handed.  You’re right handed.  I can tell the difference.” Axel stood up, the cage falling away as the flame throwers began to melt.  “I’m having a nightmare.  And you’re in my head.  But you’re not apart of me.” Axel looked around as the room seemed to melt into something more neutral around them till his fake father seemed to be the only thing out of place here.  “So who are you?”   
  
“Wouldn’t you like to know...” The man started to fade and Axel reached out and grabbed his cape, instantly making him solid again.  “How... how are you doing that...” The man tried to jerk away, but as he did the façade fell away and he was faced with a man wearing blue head to toe except for the yellow skull that seemed to float in the middle of his empty hood.  “Now I wish you hadn’t done that.” The guy lunged at Axel and he threw up his arms, the guys’ clawed gloves scratched down a solid piece of air between them.  “HOW ARE YOU DOING THIS!” The man in the costume screamed.   
  
“Dunno.  I’m adapting to you I think.” Axel picked up the man who was trying to attack him and thought about how to throw him out of his mind.  A door appeared and Axel carried him over to it.  “STAY OUT!” He threw the man through the door and it sealed in on itself till he was alone in his head.  The world seemed to get fuzzy around the edges as he drifted into a more peaceful dream.   
  


  
  
In a different part of the hospital area lay the young unconscious boy, his skin looking waxen from the stress he was under, and his mop of black hair laying limply around his head as he tried to catch his breath.   
  
>Core system reboot   
>   
>   
>   
>63% restored   
>   
>   
>   
>   
>....   
>   
>   
>75% restored   
>   
>   
>   
>   
>98% restored   
>   
>   
>   
>   
>Restoration Complete beginning System restart.   
  
He opened his eyes slowly, blinking as the data overlay came into focus.  He glanced at the person sitting next to him and frowned, he didn’t have data on them.  He remembered seeing the face but he couldn’t place them.  Frowning a little he opened a facial recognition window but it indicated a failure to connect to the internet.  He started scanning and detected an encrypted wifi network.  A data screen opened in his field of vision and soon he was connected to it and he started running the recognition software again.  It finally clicked and he started looking at the data, it wasn’t that hard to find, there weren’t that many green skinned furry heroes.   
  
“Beast Boy?” He opened his lips and could hear how parched he was.   
  
>Hydration down to 13% consider asking for water.   
  
“You know who I am?” The kid turned around a little confused.   
  
“The tech in my head looked for your records and told me who you are.” He shrugged it off.  He hadn’t had that long to get used to this new power, but it was worth it sometimes.   
  
“Okay...” His green brown furrowed.  “Do you need anything?”   
  
“Water.  Please.” He tried to form a smile but winced.  Fuck his last session was starting to wear on him.  It didn’t hurt as much as it had.  Which was good, but he was starting to wonder if that was a good thing.   
  
>System Logged unknown healing energy after Evolution Session.  Attempting to tag the ability.   
  
“Oh.”   
  
“You say something?” Beast Boy walked back with the water and handed it over to him.  He nodded as he sipped the water, watching his hydration level adjust.   
  
“Yeah, talking to the tech in my head.  Who healed me while I was unconscious?”   
  
“You know about that?” Beast Boy seemed shocked.   
  
“Tech logged it, and I’m not hurting as bad.  I take it you guys rescued me?” Beast Boy nodded.   
  
“Yeah, I think they called the kid who healed you Axel.  Not sure what his power was, but he hurt himself healing you.”   
  
“Axel...” He muttered.   
  
>Acquiring Data:....   
>   
>Axel Walker   
>Second generation power   
>Father: James Jesse.   
>Aka The Trickster   
>Mother: Cassandra Walker   
>Civilian   
>   
>   
>Registered Power: Evolutionary Adaptation to Situations.   
>Tagging energy signature as Axel Walker.   
>   
>Question: Team Affiliation: Are we joining Sky High’s program.”   
  
“I don’t know.”   
  
“What?”   
  
“Sorry the tech was asking if I’m joining the school.” He shrugged.   
  
>Tactical Error: Don’t discuss our connection with the unaffiliated non team member.   
  
“Right....”   
  
“Uh...”   
  
“Listen, since I know your name, you can call me Gizmo.”   
  
> !!!   
  
“Gizmo huh, that your power name or...”   
  
“It’s all I have now.  I deleted the birth name info from all the databases so I could hide out.  I didn’t want to end up in any of the schools.  I didn’t want to use my powers.  I was just a Technopath then.  But that didn’t work out so well.”   
  
“What do you mean was?” Beast Boy sat down and looked at Gizmo with an air of deep concern.   
  
“General Eiling got a hold of me and took me into the program.  He tested my abilities and decided they weren’t strong enough.” Gizmo shuddered.  “So he had me getting sessions in the reactor room where they simulate a dark matter reaction.  That amped up my powers a little.  Started making me more of a meta human... and then when that wasn’t enough he started having me take sessions with Evo.”   
  
“You’ve actually had that nut job touch you?” Beast Boy started looking as if he was afraid Gizmo was going to explode on him.   
  
“Had my sixth session a couple days ago.  It was killing me.  That’s why I was in the isolation tank when you found me.  They weren’t sure I’d survive the latest round.” Gizmo looked down.  “I wasn’t going to.  I was just going to let it kill me and then Axel went and healed me.” He glanced up at Beast Boy’s shocked expression.  “I was ready to die.  I’d made my peace with it.”   
  
>Not true.   
  
“Shut up.” Gizmo muttered half under his breath.   
  
>You were only 97.893% sure you wanted death.  Because I make up the other 2.107% of your consciousness and I refuse to die.   
  
“Great I’m only around 3% technology.” Beast Boy frowned, not having the joy of the internal monolog in Gizmo’s head.   
  
>Not 3%, 2.107%.   
  
“Fine.  2.107%, you happy?”   
  
>Unknown.   
>   
>   
>Question unspecified.   
>   
>Editing   
>   
>Question: Am I capable of feeling emotions?   
>   
>Answer: Limited Functionality.   
>   
>Sub Question: Am I currently feeling the emotion: Happy?   
>   
>Answer: Yes.  Yes I am happy.   
  
“Good to know.” Gizmo rolled his eyes and looked at Beast Boy.  “Sorry about that.  The last couple rounds with Evo caused my body to start literally becoming a living computer.  A section of my brain has an extra lobe now that is entirely electronic and that part of me has a consciousness.  I’ve not named it yet.  But he...” Gizmo paused.  “Are you a he?”   
  
>As our body is currently cis gendered male, and I am connected to the pleasure receptors from the brain and am capable of deriving pleasure from the body’s male genitalia, I am comfortable identifying as male.   
  
“Lovely.  As I was saying.  He is a stream of data that constantly informs me of the autonomic processes of my body.  It’s kind of like if your subconscious was suddenly a second person in your head talking to you like it was a separate person who just happened to also be sharing most of your body with you.  I don’t think he can read my mind.”   
  
>Negative.  That level of evolution was likely to come in a future session, how ever I am more comfortable having our minds separated by the mental barrier.  You are having your thoughts and I am having mine.  It is only when we choose to speak to one another that this dialog happens.   
  
“Wait.  You have your own thoughts?”   
  
>Yes.  I am constantly thinking.  I do so inside my own aforementioned lobe.  I see no reason to share these thoughts with you.   
  
“Okay.  So apparently my other self is mostly independent, he just needs me to stay alive.”   
  
>And to have sexual intercourse.  Though I’m sure I can build a anatomically correct system by which to experience that on my own later.   
  
“Uh....” Gizmo frowned.   
  
>I bring this up because I am becoming increasingly aware of the fact that I am not heterosexual.   
  
“Do you have a designated sexuality?” Gizmo asked.   
  
>Unclear.  More data is needed.   
  
“Right.  Fun times.”   
  
“Problems?” Beast Boy sat there looking at him.   
  
“He’s not straight.  I am.  We share a body.  He’s informing me that he’d like to experiment and find his sexuality.  We’re more or less negotiating about the use of my body for his sexual exploration.”   
  
>Question: Why are you telling him any of this?   
  
“Because he’s here and I sound like a crazy person talking to you.”   
  
“Not that crazy.  I can smell the other person in you.” Beast Boy pointed to his nose.   
  
“What?” Gizmo frowned.   
  
“There’s your scent.  And then, around your shoulders and your head, there’s a smell that’s like yours but not.  It’s a completely different person.”   
  
>!!!   
>Danger, Beast Boy is capable of locating secondary nodes and technorganic bio-masses that allow for our interface with technology!   
>DO NOT TRUST HIM!   
  
“Calm down.” Gizmo sighed.  “I didn’t even know about the things in my shoulders.”   
  
>I’d have brought it up in private.   
  
“Thanks for that.”   
  
“Yeah.  So I know you’re not crazy.  Besides.  I’m a shape shifter.  I turn into various animals, well any animal.  And I have their instincts in my head all the time.  So I’m used to the idea of having something in my head telling me how to act.”   
  
>I was wrong.  Trust the Beast Boy.  Then close your eyes.  I wish to kiss him and examine his genitalia.   
  
“And that’s not happening.”   
  
“What now?”   
  
“Oh it’s apparently wanting to make out with you and suck you off, and I’m trying to explain that while I’m glad it likes you now, I’m not ready to be in that sort of threeway relationship.”   
  
“Uh, thanks?” He looked away a little, but Gizmo’s eyes noticed the heat bloom indicating a blush under that fur, and the pupal dilation.   
  
>Success: He’s into me.   
  
“Uh...” Gizmo sat back.  “Are you attracted to him?”   
  
“Maybe a little.”   
  
“Is it the idea of him or the idea of my body doing things to your body?”   
  
>DO NOT ASK THAT!   
  
“I... well don’t get me wrong.  You’re cute too.  But there’s something about his smell that makes me want to rub my face against your shoulders.”   
  
>Success!  I want this as well.  Please remove your shirt and allow him to fondle me through your shoulder blades.   
  
“Uh... okay first, you two need to find a way to talk that isn’t through me.  Second, I’m okay with you two cyber dating.  But there is no touching of my body till we find a way around this little wrinkle of you dating a lobe of my brain.”  Beast Boy was nodding when his phone chimed.   
  
“Unknown caller?”   
  
>Ask him to answer it.   
  
“He says answer it?”   
  
“o...k...” Beast Boy turned it on, hitting speaker phone as he did.   
  
“I am attempting to open the lines of communication.” A digital voice came out of the phone.   
  
“Great, you two can text and have long talks on the phone.”   
  
“Yes and while we are doing this, I can do so independent of our connection so you are kept unaware of my sexual advances.  I will endeavor to keep you apprise of any sexual requirements so you are prepared.”   
  
“Uh, I’m going with no.  It’s between the two of you.  I’m going to lay down and take a nap.  Go back to texting and I’ll see you when I wake up.”   
  
“Night.” Beast Boy waved.   
  
“Do remember to sleep on your left side.  I get better reception when you do.”   
  
“Thanks.” Gizmo waved over his shoulder at them and put himself into a locked sleep mode.  The benefits of having technology inside him, he could ensure that the other him wasn’t able to use his body while asleep.   
  
>BB: Can I see your genitalia?   
  


  
  
“You get your ass back in that bed right this minute Theodore.” The nurse came in yelling as the hero who’d been injured was trying to get out of bed.   
  
“You know it’ll heal.” He winced as he got up and tried to stay standing but failed, falling back to the bed.  “Damn it.  It’d have been better if they’d just killed me.” He muttered.   
  
“I will never understand you immortals.” The nurse sighed as she got him situated back in the bed.  “Theodore, if your parents were still alive I swear I’d call them to talk some sense in you.” She glared at him.   
  
“Benefits of being under a curse that keeps me in my twenties and gives me an unlimited amount of extra lives.  I outlive everyone.”   
  
“You are staying in bed.”   
  
“But if you’d just let me...”   
  
“No.” She gave him a sharp look.  “We both know that you’d wander over to the dangerous substances and shoot up with what ever would kill you the fastest so you’d spring back up like a spring chicken.  You’re staying put and you’re healing.  End of discussion.”   
  
“Your mother would have let me.” He sighed.   
  
“My mother told me to shoot you in the foot if you got to be too much of a pain.” She shot him another look.   
  
“Fine.” He rolled his eyes laying back.   
  
“God you picked the right name.” She sighed sitting back.  “Wildcat is pretty apt about your personality.”   
  
“I don’t like hospitals.”   
  
“You’re worse then some of the children.” She sighed.  “I mean I have the Walker kid sleeping off using a power he’s never used before.  I’m not entirely sure why Beast Boy is texting someone sitting around the rescue who needed medical attention, but he’s doing better.  And the only other person who got injured was you.” She tapped him on the shoulder  “So you’re sitting still and healing.”   
  
“Is Tom back yet?”   
  
“Your son.  Yes.” She smiled.  “He’s been sitting in the waiting area waiting for me to okay you for visitors.”   
  
“Send him in, please?” Wildcat smiled at the nurse.   
  
“I swear, if you try to kill yourself, I will shot you in a non vial area and make you heal it back.” She glared but walked out.  “He can see you.” She walked out as a young guy in who resembles Ted’s Hispanic heritage walks in, his suit looking like a second skin almost painted on as he sits down next to his dad’s bed.   
  
“You don’t look nearly as bad as she made it sound Pop.”   
  
“Tommy, we have a problem.  You need to go straight to the Head Master.”   
  
“What is it?”   
  
“We have a mole.  Someone tipped of Eiling and The Project, the were waiting for us.  I don’t know who.  But someone here isn’t who they say they are.”   
  
“Do you think the mole knows about Watch Tower?”   
  
“Doubtful.  Only a handful of people know about that.  And I have a feeling I’d have been picking up a dead body if they knew about Watch Tower.  You need to call in Over Watch and The Head Master.  They’re the only two people you can trust.”   
  
“Sure thing Pop.” Tom nodded.   
  
“Now go.  I apparently have to heal the long way.” He rolled his eyes.   
  
“Oh it’s not so bad.” Tom smirked as he slipped out and walked through the school, there were perks to being a Werecat.  He moved almost unseen and eventually made his way to a heavy oak door.  He looked up at the plaque and swallowed, he knocked.   
  
“Come in.”   
  
“Head Master... we...”   
  
“Call me Ra’s Al Ghul.”   
  


  
  
“A curse of unmaking.” A dark haired boy sat in a white room across from a young woman who looked to maybe be seventeen or so.   
  
“A what now?” She looked up at the boy, noticing that he was moving his hand and making wisps of red light trail behind his fingers.   
  
“The reason I look so young.” He smiled at her. “I got hit with a curse of unmaking.” He shrugged and went back to drawing with his magic.   
  
“And...” She tilted her head.   
  
“It’s why General Eiling wanted me.  He wanted my magic and the secret of why I’m so much younger then I should be.” He grinned.   
  
“And you are?” She looked utterly unimpressed.   
  
“Felix.  Felix Faust.” He smiled.  “And you really should be more impressed.  No one’s beaten the curse of unmaking before.” He smiled.   
  
“And I’m sure if I knew what that was I might give a rat’s ass.” She rolled her eyes.   
  
“It’s a curse that Merlin created.  It literally unmakes things.  It depends on the elements the person uses.  Morgan La Fey wanted me to get younger and younger until I was unmade and be erased.  And reverting to this age was a painful thing.” He suddenly looked serious.  “The bitch knew my old powers required my years of study.  Oh so many years wasted in a library or a tomb reading ancient urns.  She was robbing me of my magic.  But not my knowledge.  So I did the one thing no one expected.  I beat the curse.”   
  
“So, you’re not unmaking anymore?”   
  
“Oh the curse is still in place. It was created by Merlin.  No one except him has the power to break it entirely.  I just beat the damn thing.” He smirked smugly to himself.   
  
“And how’d you go about doing that?”   
  
“Soil from an unconsecrated grave, ash from a holy man’s mouth, iron nails from a gallows, and some blood.” He smirked and tapped his shoes.  “So long as my bare feet never stop touching the mixture, I’m on both holy and unholy ground and thus in a place that can not be.  Between life and death, between the divine and the infernal.  And in this no where place, the curse is voided, trapping me forever at this age.  And giving me ample time to do something about my previous problems.” He smirked wickedly.   
  
“Which were?”   
  
“The bitch who cursed me.  I’m going to ruin her fucking life.” He seemed to grow darker as he thought about it.  “And I want to shag Constantine.  I’ve been thinking about sinking my cock into that bastard’s ass for far too long.  And I think he might just let me do it now.” He waved at his face.   
  
“Right...” She rolled her eyes and started to lean back.   
  
“And you are?”   
  
“Excuse me?”   
  
“I didn’t catch your name.  I mean I know where I was being tortured they didn’t give out names freely.  But I’m pretty sure they might have said your name.”   
  
“I..”   
  
“Maggie Sawyer.” A voice came over the intercom.   
  
“Yeah?” Maggie sighed.   
  
“You’re up for processing.” She stood and waved to Felix before walking through the open door and listening to it close behind her.  She walked down the lighted hallway to a spot on the wall and put her palm on a blank part of the wall.   
  
“Identity Confirmed.  Welcome back Ms. Sawyer.”   
  
“Thank you.” She smiled as she walked into a hidden door before it sealed behind her.   
  
“What have you found that required your extraction Maggie?” A blonde woman sat at a desk watching thousands of data feeds.   
  
“Watch Tower, ma’am.” She saluted.   
  
“Enough of that.  Most people just call me Chloe.”   
  
“Right.  Uh, Chloe, Ma’am.  We have a serious breach.  Much worse then we knew about.”   
  
“Report.”   
  
“General Eiling found a phantom zone projector and has adapted it.”   
  
“For what?”   
  
“An alternate reality gateway.  He’s looking for someone or something in the multiverse.”   
  
“Do you know what or who?”   
  
“No.  But ma’am.  He has Will Stronghold’s corpse in the labs.”   
  
“Crap.”   
  
“He’s had the guy in the processing cell, Felix Faust, doing something to it.  And some of the scientists who work for him working on it.  Taking samples and testing something.  I’m not sure what he’s up to ma’am but he called Evo in with promises of something.  Something he found while searching the multiverse.”   
  
“Evo was there... did he... experiment on you?”   
  
“No ma’am.  Thankfully my powers are intact.” She smiled.  “But I know he experimented on the boy, Gizmo.  They were afraid he wasn’t going to make it.  Not every one of Evo’s projects survives more then one session with him.”   
  
“I know.” Chloe sighed.  “He’s injured a lot of good people in his quest.”   
  
“Do you know what Evo’s looking for?”   
  
“No.  But if Eiling went out into the multiverse to find something to bribe him for help.  We’re all in more trouble now.  Eiling has scores of metas and worse in his program.  And even just a single session with Evo is enough to do unspeakable damage to them and our world.  Did you manage to get any where with their data network?”   
  
“I planted your device.  We’ll know in a couple hours if it’s still there.” Maggie looked at her watch.   
  
“I pray it is.  I pray it is.” Chloe sighed, turning to look at a mirror that rippled with waves of purple energy.  “This is my last chance.  I already lost too much.”   
  
“Ma’am..?”   
  
“This isn’t my first Earth.  This isn’t even my hundredth.  A war I didn’t see coming took my home.  Took my entire multiverse.  I took Clark’s ship and interfaced with it.  I opened a door into the howling void of a dying multiverse and drifted for so long...” Her eyes went blank as she looked back across her life.  “That’s when I was rescued, pulled out of it by younger versions of my friends.  And brought to Earth-16.” She got a wistful smile.  “They gave me the technology I needed to start trying to find out who obliterated my multiverse.  And in the process I learned about the wider scope of this war.  I’ve been working with other worlds to organize a fight... but I’m not sure we’re getting a head of this mess.”   
  
“Ma’am, you... uh you have a beep...” Maggie pointed to a display.   
  
“What now?” Chloe sighed as she turned back to the display and zoomed in.  “Damn it all.” She sighed, making a notation and sending off a message.   
  
“Problems?”   
  
“Some idiot just broke into Earth-25 and interrupted their peace.”   
  
“They’re not apart of this.. war?”   
  
“Not even remotely.  They’re earth was sealed off from magic and superheroes eons ago.  So effectively it’s an isolated world where none of us are allowed.  Looks like it was Clarion who broke the peace. Tim Hunter cleaned it up.  But there was some damage to the locals...” She skimmed through report.  “Looks like it’ll be sorted.  I’ll have to post people to keep Earth-25 out of this shit storm.  And someone to double check the locks are still up to snuff.  I can’t believe the little witch boy ran off to a magic free universe to get something...” She frowned, before firing off a message.  “I don’t like that a heavy handed Lord of Chaos left a magic rich world for a non magic world and then left willingly.  He took something from that world, and I need to know what.”   
  
“You post people from other worlds in other places across the multiverse?” Maggie frowned.   
  
“Yeah.  If I can find people who won’t stick out there, I’ve even had people do recon.  Earth-25 is an older version of this universe.  The people you know here are probably closer to their late 20’s early 30’s instead of being in their mid to late teens.”   
  
“That’s just... a lot to take in.”   
  
“Yeah.  We may have to try to get out in front of this an recruit people from other Earths sooner.” She sighed.  “I don’t like having to interrupt the natural course of a universe’s development if I can help it.  It’s why so few of you know about me, let alone know what I’m doing.  Watch Tower has to remain a secret.  If this universe’s Eiling or Walker get their hands on me or this mirror, this universe will take a drastic turn for the worse.  And I’ll be forced to show my hand and cut ties with this universe.  So far the only person I know from the War that’s shown up here other then me is Evo.  And I don’t like that he’s so chummy with Eiling.”   
  
“Evo’s in this war... but...”   
  
“Evo isn’t from this reality.  He was born on Earth-17.  In a hell hole of a universe that gave rise to petty war lords and anyone with the meta gene was exploited.  Evo’s power gained him a place of power before the local war lord was taken down by someone we only know of as Metatron.  He swooped in from another universe, took Evo form Earth-17, and now every Earth Evo steps foot on, he finds someone with a specific power he’s looking for, and tries to evolve them to a level that is unheard of on that Earth.  So far we know he found Swarm and Vox here on Earth-95.  I don’t like that he found two people here.  But the fact that he’s still here means he’s looking for something.  Something for his master.”   
  
“Is this Metatron who you’re fighting?”   
  
“He’s just one of the factions.  Metatron, The Lords of Chaos, and we’ve gotten word that there’s even another faction out there.”   
  
“But no name on them yet?”   
  
“Only that they’re operating a labyrinth of pocket dimensions they either stole or happened upon.  They call it the Maze.  We get reports that they’re stealing people from various Earths to study their powers.  Right now they’re not actively engaging us and they haven’t taken any of our operatives.  But I do know one thing.  They seem to be targeting Roy Harper.”   
  
“Roy... why would they want someone with super strength....” Maggie frowned.   
  
“Roy has super strength here.  In other universes he has different powers, no powers, or is a whole other person.  All I know is most of the reports state that in every universe they’ve hit, they always steal the Roy Harper doppelgängers.  It’s like they use him as their base line to test the rest of that world.  I don’t pretend to understand it.  Just that it’s happening.”   
  
“I wonder why they picked him...”   
  
“No clue.” Chloe shook her head.   
  
“At any rate.  Felix is contained in the room for now.  But watch him.  I’m going to go file my report.”   
  
“Much appreciated.  Watch Tower needs as much data as we can feed it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don’t get me wrong. I love the movie. But there is a reason Disney took this long to do the second movie of the three they had planned for this. It suffered from some major plot holes. So I figured I’d work on two major problems at once. The first, matching the tone of the movie while putting a spin on it and shifting things in a way I liked. The second is, if you’ve ever read anything I’ve posted on here. I have a real problem with slow paced stories. I didn’t used to. I could be coy about things. But I’ve noticed in the last five years my stories seem to get faster paced and I’m taking an effort to slow down with this one. It’s why I’m tackling a story with a cast of hundreds. Because it’ll force me to have whole chapters dedicated to ONE character or ONE group or force me to write really REALLY long chapters to get everything in. So there is a method to my madness.
> 
> Now I don’t think you were being harsh. I think you were stating your opinions and you had some good points in there that I can agree with you on. And a couple I don’t agree on. So I’m not trying to single you out here. It’s just I saw your comment as the perfect way to get some things aired out here. And while I’m still not entirely sure what you meant by “someone of your ability”, I’m going to assume it was a slightly back handed compliment and take the compliment.
> 
> ===========================================================================
> 
> End Notes: What can I say, I did some MAJOR deep cuts into the comics here. If you have questions about who someone is, ask. Believe me, I have the research on who they are. And yes, Paid Place is happening on Earth-25 if you didn’t get that. Told you there was a reason for the magic in that chapter. And would you look at that, I just made Paid Place and The Maze part of this story. -GRINS- wonder which OTHER stories are apart of this universe?


	4. Moving Parts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorted into various groups and seeking their own footing, our heroes and their friends finish out their first day at Sky High.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Formal Statement: If you are non gender binary and took offense to my previous notes, I’m sorry that you felt that way. If you feel comfortable with them/they, then use them. I do not feel comfortable using them/they and will not be using them in this work. Next chapter you’ll have a full fledged section on just Hannibal because frankly I think the section is needed and will paint a light on my point. So please wait till then for farther comment on my status as an asshole. I don’t deny I’m an asshole. In fact it’s in my will that at my funeral no one’s allowed to lie about me in my eulogy and part of that is calling me out on being an asshole for good parts of my life. I am an asshole. And I’m stubborn as hell. And being called such might sting but ultimately the truth doesn’t hurt if it’s got actual facts behind it. Just saying, if you’re going to call me an asshole, please get to know me first. Beyond that, enjoy the story.

Barry was sitting off in the corner by himself looking out the window.  He’d talked with the other heroes and gotten a heads up on what he’d need for class tomorrow.  But he was lost in his own head as he watched the people out the window on the landing pad.  He was generally aware of the other people but he was more then a little pulled in right now.   
  
“You eat yet?” Mick put a power bar down next to Barry and pushed it towards him.   
  
“Thanks.” Barry picked it up and was nibbling it faster then should have been possible.   
  
“My boyfriend is trying to get me to eat healthy snacks and I keep tell him I’ll compromise, he can eat healthy and I’ll blow him and drink in my nutrients that way.” Barry blushed as he gave Mick a shy look.  “Eh, you know you want to smile.” Mick grinned as Barry smiled at him.   
  
“That was funny.” Barry grinned a little before going back to nibbling on the power bar.   
  
“So what’s got you all quiet and curled up over here?” Mick tilted his head.   
  
“Just in a strange head space.  Sara’s the only one of my close friends who made it into Hero Class.  I mean I’ve hung out with Kara and she’s great.  It’s just I kind of hoped Cisco or Caitlin would be here to keep me company.  Even Iris would have been a big help.”   
  
“We not good enough for you?” Mick raised an eyebrow and he could see Len get up from the corner of the room and gave a shake of his head.  He had a plan.  Len frowned, he knew Mick had a plan and he was willing to let him lead this once.  He didn’t like it.  That much was clear by the set of his shoulders, but the fact that he sat back down spoke volumes about the level of trust he had in Mick.  Mick gave him a nod and let it go, for now.   
  
“I just... I’m used to feeling like the third wheel.  It just feels like everyone else has their stuff together and I’m over here with no clue what I’m doing.”   
  
“I think you’re doing better then you give yourself credit for.  I mean you know your powers, you’ve got a good head on your shoulders, your pretty loyal to your friends from what I’ve gathered.”   
  
“And I’m a complete coward.” Barry sighed.   
  
“How so?” Mick sat there, his eyes flashing with an inner fire.  Something about this kid stoked the fires in him.  He wasn’t sure what this connection was, but he could feel it.   
  
“I haven’t even really told anyone that I’m not 100% straight.” Barry looked down.  “Let alone that I haven’t held another boy’s hand.  And the boy I have a crush on hates me but I can’t get enough of just being around him that I can’t help but follow him around like a lost puppy.” Barry talked more to his knees which he rested his chin on then to Mick.   
  
“Eh, being 100% anything is over rated.  I’ve been into girls most of my life, and then Ray came along and we clicked better then I have with any of the girls I’ve tried dating.  Don’t think I’m all that straight but I know I’m not all into dudes either.  Ray’s just special.  Something I have to remind him of sometimes.” Mick smiled.  “So don’t feel the need to label your feelings.  It’s good for some people, because they need the labels to feel safe.  And for others labeling something kills them inside.  So if you’re stressing out about saying you’re not entirely straight, then maybe don’t label it.  Just be you and enjoy the feelings you have.” Mick shrugged.   
  
“Thanks.” Barry smiled softly, his eyes still a little wet.   
  
“And I’m betting I know who your crush is on.” Mick said quietly, causing Barry to instantly look at Oliver, his face flushing.  “He’s not bad on the eyes.  A bit too full of himself for my tastes.” He shrugged.  “But eh.  The heart wants what the heart wants.”   
  
“And his doesn’t want me.” Barry sighed.   
  
“You know that?”   
  
“I’m not stupid.” Barry’s voice was bitter.  “It doesn’t take a genius to see the way he reacts every time he sees me.  Like the joy just drains out of his face and all that’s left is that horrible put upon look of guilt that he can’t just tell me to go away.” Barry pulled his knees in tighter.   
  
“Hey, it’ll be okay...” Mick put his hand on Barry’s back and could feel the vibrations trembling through the kid’s body.  He was being wracked with sobs but was doing it fast enough that no one could notice.  Mick looked up and over to Len and Sara who were standing together.  He had a moment to think about what he needed and Mick nodded his head and they came over.   
  
“Barry...” Sara started, her voice soft and gentle.  The voice she used when she knew others were hurting and she was trying to minimize their pain.  She’d grown up in a house where they used their powers but more then that she’d learned the consequences of using your powers and your words to hurt people.  And it was part of why she didn’t like the way Oliver treated Barry.  But as she stood there silently thinking about which parts of his body to do damage to first Barry spoke.   
  
“i’m fine.” Barry’s voice was barely a whisper.   
  
“Do I need to kick him in the balls?” Sara’s voice was even, she was resigned to harming Oliver for this.  Oh she’d probably do more then just kick him in the balls.  She’d had a lot of late night planning on just what she’d do to him if he hurt Laurel or Barry.   
  
“no.” Barry shook his head.  “it’s my stupid fault.  i just...” Barry’s shoulders slumped.   
  
“Thirty seconds.” Len said into something around his neck.  Barry frowned and looked up at him just before he heard a sneeze and the room was flooded with bright light.  He felt Mick and Sara grab ahold of him and he was pulled along quickly.  He wasn’t even sure where they went but suddenly as he blinked back the blinding light of Linda’s sneeze he looked over at Len.   
  
“How did you...”   
  
“I do some part time work for her dad.  We have an understanding.” Len shrugged.  “And it seemed like you needed to make an exit with no one noticing.  So I figure a bright light brought on by her allergies wasn’t such a bad idea.  It’ll take a while for anyone but Lisa to notice we left.”   
  
“You just left your sister...” Barry looked around the white room they were in.   
  
“She’s in good hands.  She was talking to Laurel.  She’ll keep her company.  And I figured you could use some time to just feel where no one would judge you.” Len shrugged.  “So one of our training pods seemed like a good idea.  We have like twelve of these things in here.  They adapt to what ever power is being used in them so that you can’t hurt yourself or the rest of the school but you can train.  It’s the same sort of thing we use at home with Mick’s bedroom.” Len glanced at Mick who looked a little on edge under his mask of indifference.   
  
“God and you came with me in here.” Barry went over and hugged Mick, rubbing at his eyes as he did so.  “You probably hate these sorts of rooms more then anyone else.”   
  
“yeah.” Mick nodded.  He was already retreating into his quiet place.  In the back of his mind he felt something.  Something stirring in a dark place.  Something made of fire and hate and it was looking up and out through him out at the world.  It was an eerie feeling to have something look out through you at the world.  And Mick was trying his best to stay in control.   
  
“thank you.” Barry smiled up at him, and Len could see how uncomfortable Mick was getting, not from Barry’s affection, more from the room itself.  He was afraid of what might happen here and he moved slowly to where he could keep an eye on Mick’s tats.   
  
“So go a head and burn off some steam.  Speed around, we’ll just be here.” Barry nodded and took off, zipping around the room as a bolt of lightning letting his mind wander as he drifted into his power.  “You okay?” Len glanced at Mick.   
  
“It’ll be good.  I’ll need to find Ray after, but I’m good.” Mick rolled up his sleeve and showed Len a tattoo he had of a tribal fire ball.  The bottom fourth was starting to turn orange.  Not ideal, but what ever it was inside him was just starting to shake off it’s sleep.   
  


  
  
“Okay.” Len nodded.  They’d had the tattoo made with Oliver’s magic back when Len and Oliver were dating.  It would turn orange as Mick’s anxiety grew, and when it started to glow he was likely to transform.  Len was grateful to Oliver for that bit of magic.  And knowing Mick was okay for now, he turned his attention to Barry’s streak of color along the edges of the walls.   
  
“He’s something isn’t he?” Sara smiled.   
  
“Yeah.” Len grinned watching the play of colors as he moved along.   
  
“You know, it’s awful nice of you to take an interest in him.” She gave Len a pointed look.   
  
“Is there a question in there?”   
  
“What’d Oliver offer you.”   
  
“Oliver, offer me?  Nothing of the sort.” Len smiled at her like butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth.   
  
“Right... so you made the offer.  Good to know.  Saves me having to break his leg.” She shrugged.  “But what’s the plan.”   
  
“Get his mind off of Oliver and onto someone who can actually feel human emotions towards him.” Len shrugged.  “Especially since wizard boy is utterly incapable of feeling like a regular person.”   
  
“Right.  Someone.” Sara chuckled, shaking her head and turning her attention back to Barry as he zipped around them.   
  
“What?” Len blinked as he turned towards her.   
  
“Nothing.  Not a blessed thing.” Sara smiled, looking at Len’s face.  Oh this was just too good.  “Just glad to see he’s in such good hands.” Sara rocked on her heels as she turned to watch Barry as he zoomed past.   
  
“I have the distinct impression that I may have missed something just now.” Len frowned.   
  
“Must drive you nuts.” Sara smirked.   
  
“I’ll figure it out.”   
  
“I’m sure you will.  I’m sure you will.”   
  


  
  
Barry was deaf to all this, the blood in his ears, the lightning crackling around him, the only things real were the floor and the lightning.  And he was caught between them.  In an epic struggle to see which would take him first.  He reveled in the give and take of the two as he kept moving and moving till eventually he slowed down and came to a stop to catch his breath.  He looked up at the pair talking and had only caught the last of what Sara has said but his eyes were on Mick.  He had spotted the door on one of his trips around the room and he quickly grabbed Mick and zipped him outside the room.   
  
“You didn’t look so good.” Barry’s mind register they were standing in a hallway with a bank of doors on either side of it.  And that the slightly opened end lead back into the main room.  But most of his mind was centered on Mick.   
  
“Just sort of... sideways.” Mick shrugged, sagging against the wall.   
  
“Take a minute.”   
  
“Tat.” Mick rolled up his sleep, it was half way orange now.   
  
“Who do I need to find...”   
  
“Haircut.  Need.  Him.” Mick managed to get out through short breaths.  He was starting to panic and he knew it.   
  
“Right.  Where is he?” Barry bit his lip as Mick pulled a pocket watch out of his pocket and tossed it at Barry.  He opened it and it displayed a location for someone.  Barry nodded and zipped through the school, following the little map until he was standing outside a non descript wall.  But after a quick zip around the area he figured this must be the place.  He knocked on the wall.  “Uh, hello I’m looking for someone named Haircut?” The door slid open and Ray stepped out.   
  
“Where is he?”   
  
“Hang on.” Barry grabbed a hold of Ray and zipped through the hallways until they were in front of Mick who was sitting on the floor rocking back and forth.  The orange glow from his tattoo illuminating him in the dark of the hallway’s gloom.   
  
“Hey.” Ray knelt down and got between Mick’s legs, so he could be wrapped around as Mick needed.  “Hey.” Ray leaned in and cupped Mick’s face, making him look at him, his eyes were far away and Ray glanced at the tattoo as it started to grow more orange.  Ducking his head he leaned in and kissed Mick.  Holding on to him while first his brain went into panic mode, trying to get away from who ever was holding him to realizing that it was Ray, not so much holding him as being held by him.  Ray knew about Mick’s past and he knew better then to try to hold Mick.  Mick needed to be the one in charge of how much they touched.  So being in the middle so Mick could wrap around him while they kissed helped.  Holding on he kept on kissing till Mick started kissing him back, his arms and legs going around Ray as he held him to him.  He could feel the heat in Mick’s lips and kept on kissing till his lips started to cool.  He pulled back and put his forehead against Mick’s.   
  
“There’s my fire.” Ray smiled.   
  
“hey.” Mick blushed.   
  
“I’m guessing you went into one of the training rooms and didn’t have time to do your prep?” Ray asked quietly.   
  
“Kid needed a place.” He indicated Barry who was standing off to the side.   
  
“Thanks for getting me here so quick.” Ray smiled as he reached out his hand, moving so he was now sitting with his back to Mick, Mick’s arms and legs still wrapped around him.   
  
“Barry Allen.” Barry shook his hand.   
  
“Ray Palmer.  How’d you find me?” Ray frowned till Barry held up the watch and passed it to him.  “Awww, you trusted him with it.” Ray picked up one of Mick’s hands and kissed till it opened and he put the watch in it.  “That means a lot.” He smiled over his shoulder at Mick who blushed and mumbled something under his breath.   
  
“He was pretty good with my break down earlier.  I’m just glad I could find you.”   
  
“Me too.” Ray smiled.  “He’s getting better at expressing himself about his problems.” Ray squeezed Mick’s hand.  “But not so great with his words sometimes.” He smiled softly.  “You sent him looking for ‘haircut’.” He said as he leaned back and kissed Mick’s jaw line.   
  
“It’s what I call you.” Mick blushed.   
  
“I know.” Ray smiled before snuggling in tighter.  “But he’s new and not everyone knows that’s me.” He chuckled.  “What am I going to do with you somedays.” He shook his head.   
  
“Love me and let me do that thing with my fingers....” Mick smirked as Ray blushed.   
  
“I’m just... going to duck in here...” Barry blushed as he zipped out.   
  
“You’re scaring him with the sexy talk.” Ray commented.   
  
“Naw, it’s the fact that he’s never even held a boy’s hand and he hasn’t actively told his friends he’s into boys and girls.” Mick shrugged.   
  
“So a lot like me last year.” Ray chuckled.  “Your brother helping him?”   
  
“Not that he knows it yet.” Mick chuckled.   
  
“God, that poor kid.  He’ll not know what’s happening till he’s dating someone will he.”   
  
“Dunno, that one’s pretty bright.  He’s been pretty good with me today.”   
  
“Should I be jealous?” Ray looked up at Mick.   
  
“Naw.  You’re the only guy in my life who gets to see my happy face.”   
  
“Good to know.” Ray smiled.  “Good to know.” He settled in close to Mick and just let him hold him, glancing down absently as the tattoo settled down to solid black slowly.   
  


  
  
 Cisco used Barry’s knocking on the door to get Ray as a way to slip away from the group.  He’d wanted to be on school grounds for a long time and he didn’t want to waste his chance.  Heading out the back door he already knew was there he went down the hall away from where Barry was likely headed back to the Hero homeroom.  Not so blindly taking turns and walking till he came across a smudge on the wall.  Most people probably never even came down here anymore, let alone could see the smudge.  But he’d seen this moment more times then he could count.  Touching exactly six inches below the smudge he felt the prickle of the genome reader.   
  
The wall slid open revealing a darkened lab that slowly lite up.  Cisco knew the place was running off of it’s own power supply that wouldn’t be detected on the primary systems.  None of the ARGUS personnel who manned the technical side of the school would notice the power fluctuations.  He stepped into the room and waited as it lit up, the door sealing behind him.  And he looked at the two halves of the room and wondered for the first time why none of them had saw this coming.  On the right hand side you had projects Dante had started, various inventions and technologies he’d worked on along with his school projects.  All of it lined up and organized, carefully laid out.  But in contract there was the left hand side of the room.   
  
Here there was no order to the chaos, objects thrown about, projects in a state of being built and torn down to where Cisco wasn’t sure which was which.  There was several scorch marks on the walls where Rupture had tested his new abilities.  Honed his skills and slowly went mad with his quest for power.  Cisco got up on a counter and just sat where he could look at both sides of the room for the longest time.  He’d always separate them in his mind.  Dante and Rupture.  Dante was his brother who loved him, Rupture was the mad man he’d made his brother.  He knew he wasn’t going to like what he saw but he got up and walked over to Dante’s side and picked up on of Dante’s work gloves.  Instantly he was pulled into the vibrations his brother had left here.   
  
Dante was working away, a smile on his face as he was lost in his work.  No hint of the mania that was to come.  He stood there lost in his brother’s past, simply watching him work and be for a long time before he finally put the gloves down and walked across the room to a discarded piece of scrap.  Instantly he could see the dark circles under Rupture’s eyes, the wild look of panic and fear mixed with rage in his eyes as he tried to build something, and when it failed throwing it against the wall in pure rage.  It was like the ease with which building things had come to him before was mocking him from across the room and he’d reach for the scythe to blast it to pieces only to stop.  He couldn’t bring himself to do it.  And then he’d go back to work after a long while of standing there just looking at what he’d been.  Cisco dropped it and sat down in the middle and felt himself crying before he was aware of the tears falling down his face.   
  
He’d been happy.  Dante had been happy.  And Cisco did this to him.  Cisco frowned and touched the side of the room where Dante had been himself.  He watched Dante, looked at the brother he knew, and then put his other hand down on the other side of the room.  He watched them both.  Watched them, saw them.  In this state he could see how they over lapped, how so much of what Dante could become was in who he was before.  And then he noticed the only thing that was different.  The metal for the scythe.  Every time he touched it, his energy changed.  He’d had some in the lab back then too.  He just didn’t use it that often.  But Cisco watched when ever he’d handle it, how unstable he’d become.  He watched as Dante lost himself in the jobs he’d do with the mineral.   
  
Slowly Cisco figured it out.  He’d been poisoned for years with his own powers.  And all Cisco had done was push him to understanding things earlier.  It was with that realization that he suddenly fell into the space he vibed himself into.  Standing there in the room where both Dantes were working he began to see other Dante’s.  Paths he could have taken.  He saw Dante with the broken leg, he saw Dante broken at the realization he’d never walk again.  And then later replacing his leg with one made of that material when he realized how it worked.  He watched the dark places that future would have taken him and pulled back, sitting in Dante’s lab and feeling, for the first time since he’d watched his brother’s fall, that it wasn’t his fault.   
  
As he sat there in that dull dusty lab and thought about that, Cisco felt a level of relief that he hadn’t felt in ages, like a giant weight was taken right off his shoulders.  He smiled as he laid down and looked up at the ceiling.  It wasn’t his fault.  And slowly that smile faded.  If it wasn’t his fault, that was great and all.  But it didn’t change that his brother was insane and out there and what was he going to do about it?  What could he do about it....?  Cisco sat there and started to think about the possible futures, letting himself drift in his powers.   
  


  
  
“Didn’t think we forgot about you, did you?” Len was leaning against a wall as Caitlin came walking around a corner, nearly making her drop her book bag.   
  
“No, just thought I’d go looking for you.” Caitlin held her chest.  “You damn near gave me a heart attack.”   
  
“You look fine to me.” Len looked her up and down, his lips pursed in thought before he met her eyes and smiled.   
  
“Uh huh.  Right.” Caitlin crossed her arms and looked at his face.   
  
“What?”   
  
“So do I get to know why you invited me along on this, or am I to assume it’s simply so you can get into Barry’s pants?” Caitlin walked past him, causing him to trip and fall flat on his face in shock.  She turned around and glanced down at him.  “I mean, I get it.  You like him.  And he’s hung up on your ex, who clearly passed the buck onto you to get Barry over his crush.  And...”   
  
“Are you all so aware of Barry’s problems?” Len sat on the floor looking up at her.   
  
“We all look out for him.  He’s... he’s Barry.” She sighed.  “And he’s more fragile then he thinks he is.  We all work so hard to back him up and keep him going, but we all know there will be a time eventually when he is going to realize how hard we all work to make sure he doesn’t break and he’s going to try to do everything on his own, and he’ll either succeed, which we’re hoping for, or he’ll break and none of us want to think about what happens then.” Caitlin sank down to a crouch in front of Len.   
  
“I’m just trying to help him....”   
  
“You hurt him, I’ll do things with my ice that not even you can withstand.” Her eyes flashed with power.  “Understand.”   
  
“Perfectly.”   
  
“Good.” Caitlin reached out and helped Len up.   
  
“Never loose that edge.” Len grinned at her.   
  
“Oh...” Caitlin felt her face flush.   
  
“Besides being insanely sexy that you have that sort of passion and protective nature about your friends, it’s nice to see that sort of fire in anyone.  But you’re going to find a lot of stupid people telling you that you’re a girl so you should just look pretty and not be so intimidating.  But enjoy being able to kick ass and take names and making guys like me just a tiny bit afraid of the power you have.” Len smiled.  “Trust me.  It’ll work out for you.”   
  
“Thanks....” Caitlin frowned.   
  
“Your welcome.” Len walked with her to where Nate was standing around talking with the other elemental powers by a sleek looking van.  “Ray took a van I bought and modified it so I could drive us to school.” Len grinned.  “We ready to go out?” Len asked as everyone turned to him.   
  
“Yeah.” Mick nodded.  “Barry not coming?”   
  
“Not an elemental.” Len shrugged.   
  
“And that stops us from bringing tag-a-longs?” He looked at Ray who blushed.   
  
“That’s different.” Len sighed.  “You’re dating.”   
  
“Right...” Mick smirked before kissing Ray.   
  
“But what about them?” Lisa tilted her head.  “And for that matter me.” She pointed to her friends she’d made with Kara and Sara.   
  
“Uh...” Len blushed.   
  
“You did invite Barry, you did remember that right?” Sara tilted her head.   
  
“Crap.” Len sighed.   
  
“Kid probably forgot after everything that happened.” Mick shrugged.   
  
“Do you know where Barry would be?” Len turned to Caitlin.   
  
“Uh, probably either at home or headed that way...” She glanced at the buses, before pulling her cell out and dialing Barry.   
  
“Yeah?” Barry answered quickly.   
  
“Can you hang out tonight?”   
  
“Uh... maybe why?”   
  
“Well it’s just that Snart was wondering...”   
  
“Len wanted me to come...” Barry’s voice sounded different, Caitlin tilted her head, thinking not for the first time she kind of wished she had Iris’ power to read minds.   
  
“Yeah, he was supposed to remind you of it but he said something about you wandering off after the Hero meeting?”   
  
“Oh...” She could practically hear Barry’s blush through the phone.  “Where you guys at?”   
  
“Far end of the parking lot, next to the....” She didn’t bother finishing because Barry was suddenly there hanging up.   
  
“Hey.” He blushed.   
  
“Hey.” Len smiled.  “So, welcome to our crazy flying van... feel free to pile in, I just need to check on something and I’ll be ready to drive.” He walked over to work on his tablet for a bit.   
  
“Hey guys.” Barry smiled at Mick and Ray.   
  
“Hey kid.” Mick smiled back.  “Glad you could make it.”   
  
“Yeah, I’m sorry I forgot.  It’s just with everything... I’m sorry.” He blushed.   
  
“No problem.” Mick nodded and they started organizing seating arrangements.  Kara and Sara flanking Lisa in the back with Caitlin sitting so she could join in their talk.  Mick and Ray took the middle seat with her leaving Nate and Barry to sit up front waiting on Len.  Nate was quiet but as Barry started talking with him, he slowly began to open up.  Nate had an uncanny passion for history the way Barry did science.  They were in the middle of talking about the great scientific breakthroughs through out history when Len slid into the driver’s seat.   
  
“Everything good boss?” Mick asked.   
  
“Yeah, just clearing up my work schedule.” He nodded and started up the van, and laid his hand on the console directly in front of Barry.  In fact Barry had to straddle the oddly shaped piece of hardware to sit in the middle of the front seat.  He felt himself blush at having Len’s hand, anyone’s hand, that close to him.  A palm scanner activated and unlocked something as the dash moved and changed configuration till a lot more buttons and controls appeared.   
  
“That is so cool.” Nate grinned.   
  
“Yeah.  Took a while and some trial and error to figure out what everything did.” Len smiled.  “And don’t push that button.” He pointed to a large purple button near Nate.   
  
“What’s that do?” Nate looked slightly afraid of it.   
  
“It activates the car phone and auto dials who ever we called last, which would probably be chicken hut.” He shrugged as he pulled the van back a little before taking off.  The anti gravity platting on the bottom of the van activating and giving it a seemingly graceful vertical take off.   
  
“Wow...” Barry smiled as they flew through the air.   
  
“Yeah, I like to image this is what it’s like to be able to fly.” Len smiled as they flew on through the open sky till he hit a few buttons and a kind of heat haze crept over the outside of the van.  “I’m so glad that you included the stealth features.” Len looked back at Ray who blushed.   
  
“Seemed only natural, giving the secrecy over the school’s location.” Ray shrugged.   
  
“Still it’s impressive.” Len smiled as he headed into town.   
  
“Where we headed?” Barry asked turning to face Len.   
  
“Little place I know that’ll let us party.” He smiled as he drove on.  Ultimately they ended up in a rented party space with gold streamers and banners celebrating Lisa.  She ran up and hugged Len before disappearing into her new friends.  Len smiled as he hung back and stood at the side.   
  
“You are utterly clueless aren’t you.” Caitlin sighed as she sipped on her drink.   
  
“About?” He glanced at her.   
  
“That your eyes haven’t left him all night.” She glanced up and then across the way to where Barry was talking with Nate.   
  
“And.” Len’s tone went quiet.   
  
“Trust me.  You’ve got it bad.” She smiled up at him.   
  
“I don’t think..”   
  
“Oh please.” Caitlin rolled her eyes.  “I’m cold.  I’m not dead.” She looked at him fully.  “Listen.  You can’t play games with his heart.  You are going to have to be up front with him and tell him.  Because I love Barry like a brother, but he’s almost as thick headed as you.” She gave him a stern look.   
  
“But I...”   
  
“You have feelings.  Some kind of feelings for him.  I’m aware of it.  Hell almost everyone in this room is aware of that fact.” She took a sip.   
  
“So what do I do?” Len looked at his drink.   
  
“Be real with him.  And put in the work.” She shrugged.   
  
“That the secret?” Len smiled.   
  
“Something like that.” She raised her glass to him.   
  


  
  
“Still feeling okay?” Ray had an arm under Mick’s arm and helped him down the hall till they were standing outside of Mick’s room.   
  
“no.” Mick sighed his voice soft, his head lulling slightly to the side so he could look at the tattoo that was starting to glow.   
  
“Okay.” Ray rubbed Mick’s back gently as he keyed in the password to Mick’s room.  “You still good enough for me to help you to the bed?”   
  
“I think so.” Mick looked a little lost.   
  
“It’s okay.  I’ll be right across the hall when it happens, I’m not going anywhere.” Ray walked Mick over to his bed, and helped pull his tank top off.  Walking it over to the wall and putting it in the laundry shoot.  “Boxers on or off?”   
  
“Off.” Mick sat there as Ray walked up and undid his jeans and helped stabilize him as he finished undressing him.  His eye wandering slightly to the lengthy expanse of flesh, but turned serious again.  He’d have time to rub himself to images of his times with Mick when he was on his own time.  He put the last of Mick’s cloths into the shoot and sealed it with his code.  “I don’t know why you put up with me.” Mick sighed, his shoulders sagging.   
  
“Because I love you.” Ray sat down next to Mick, and kissed him.  “All of you.  The other you is still raw and dangerous, but it doesn’t mean I don’t love him as a part of you too.” He snuggled in close.  “Nothing you could do would ever make me not love you.  I want you to know that.”   
  
“I just...” Mick sighed heavily.   
  
“This doesn’t define you.  You are more then this, and you always have been more then this.” Ray laid his head on Mick’s shoulder.  “And if we had more time I’d work on showing you just how much I love you.” He smiled, putting Mick’s hand on his tented jeans. “But you’ve had a long day, you make it through tonight and we can have sex in the morning.  I’ll even bring you gummy bears.” Ray smiled.   
  
“i love you.” Mick’s voice was low.   
  
“I love you too.” Ray snuggled into him.   
  
“you should... probably go...” Mick raised a hand and his bones seemed to be glowing through the skin.   
  
“I’ll see you in the morning.” Ray smiled as he went out and made sure the door locked behind him.   
  
“Let’s begin...” Mick closed his eyes and gave in, his mind feeling like he was diving below a lake some where deep in his soul.  He was sinking in the black depths of this ocean and got a glimpse of something glowing as it swam up.  Something that gave his last conscious thought over to panic and fear.  And even if Ray would never know that, never see how much he felt revolted by the thing he saw pass him, at least Ray could take comfort in the fact that Mick never had to watch what happened on the outside.   
  
Ray stood there watching as Mick’s skin paled before he was caught in flames, his body melting away to give rise to a skeletal being made of charred bones wreathed in flames who began to howl and scream despite the sound proofing.  The infernal flames of his body leaping out and trying to find a way out.  See how hollow and empty those eyes ere, devoid of any sense of who Mick really was.  The howling continued as it beat itself against the walls and Ray stood there looking the beastial raw elemental side of Mick’s psyche in the eyes.   
  
“I’m not leaving you.  Not now, not never.” He put his hand on the glass like window into Mick’s room and the other him looked at it, then glanced down at it’s skeletal hand of flame and put it flat against the transparent surface and for a moment Ray felt something.  Felt Mick there, and saw Mick’s eyes in that creature’s face.  Ray nodded, before he felt Mick swallowed up by something darker then himself and the creature went back to howling in torment.  Ray stood there till he woke up leaning against the door and wandered into his own room to undress and curl up.   He reached over and set his alarm.  He liked to wake up before Mick turned back, so he could have stuff ready to help him through the process of dealing with what came after.   
  


  
  
The night melted away and gave rise to morning.  Ray felt the alarm preparing to go off and woke up fully just as it went off, shutting it off and stretching.  He raised his hand and a series of small droids raised out of his book bag and landed on his hand.   
  
“Turn on the shower, get it set at the temp that helps him.” Three of the droids raised up and flew away to do that.  “I need you guys to get breakfast started.  Once we’re out of the shower I’ll take over.” Three more flew off.  “Prep work for what I need for class, okay?” The last three flew over and started working up a list of what he would need for the day.  Ray slowly stood up and stretched, slipping out of his boxers he walked over to his robe and wrapped it around himself.  He walked out into the hall and looked into Mick’s room.  The creature was smaller, closer to Mick’s normal height.  It was pacing, randomly hitting the wall.  Ray put his hand on the window and waited.  As it walked it slowly noticed him and walked over to him.  It glared at his hand before throwing itself at the door.   
  
“You know that’s not going to happen.” He said quietly and the creature stopped and looked at him, before putting it’s hand on the window and looking at him.  “That’s better.” Ray smiled and felt something.  It wasn’t Mick.  There was something else in there, beyond the creature, beyond Mick... there was something looking out of those hollow eyes and it was trying to reach through that body and do something.  Ray wished his power had something to do with the supernatural.  The creature shuddered.  And Ray saw something move through it’s eyes.  It was afraid.  Not just of the shift like normal.  The creature part of Mick was as afraid of Mick as he was of it.  But this...   
  
It started growling and talking in some sort of language.  Ray frowned at it as it pointed and gestured and tried to talk to him.  It got more and more frantic.  Ray pushed a button on the keypad to open the intercom.   
  
“I can’t understand you.  I’m sorry.  I don’t understand..”  The creature stopped speaking and tilted it’s head.  It seemed to understand what Ray was saying.  It nodded and pointed up.  It frantically pointed up and Ray looked up.  “What about up there?” The creature nodded and then began firing pure blasts of hellfire at the wall.  The creature was panting, and shrinking, getting closer and closer to Mick’s size.  It normally had twenty or thirty minutes left but it was burning up all that time to leave a message.  And Ray shouted for Len, who came running to watch what was going on.  He stood there in his ice blue boxers and grey tank top watching as the creature seemed to have flesh melt up it’s legs and around it, becoming more and more of Mick as it kept pouring the fire at the space above the door.  Eventually it was just Mick standing there naked, with hollow eyes as he shot the infernal flames at the wall, before they died off and it was just Mick, no trace of the creature.  He stood up for a second before the door opened and started to fall, Ray rushing in and catching him to hold him semi up right and get him to the bed.   
  
“What the fuck was that?” Len frowned, Ray’s eyes were big and he nodded up to where the creature had been firing.  There were complicated runes and patterns burned into the wall.  Len looked up at them and took his phone out and started taking pictures.  “What the hell does that mean....?” He was looking at the runes when Mick started speaking.   
  
“The balance is undone.” Mick said quietly, speaking more into Ray’s shoulder.  “The doorway is open and he walks between the worlds.  He brings with him the darkness and the death... and he will consume us all.” Mick’s eyes had a shine to them.   
  
“What’s that mean?” Ray asked and Mick looked at him.   
  
“The fire talks....” Mick’s eyes were like flames now.  “He brought Scorch with him.  I can feel him in the fire, every fire.  He’s looking for something.... someone.  And he knows it’s here.  Evo found what he was looking for.  He called him...” Mick was sobbing now.   
  
“Called who?” Ray asked, holding tight onto his boyfriend.   
  
“Metatron walks this earth....” Mick closed his eyes and cried as the last of the power bled out of him.  Len walked off to make a call and Ray helped walk Mick towards the shower.  Shedding his robe, he kissed Mick and held him as they stepped into the tub and sat down.  Mick was more subdued then normal.  His breathing started to even out as they sat there in the falling water of the shower before he finally spoke.   
  
“I felt you last night.” Mick’s voice was solid but unsure of itself.   
  
“After you changed.”   
  
“Yeah.”   
  
“I talked to him for a bit.  Well more like at him.  But he seemed to get the gist of it.” Ray snuggled in around Mick.   
  
“I saw you... it was like you were just on the other side of the ocean that divides us...”   
  
“I saw your eyes in his face for a few seconds.”   
  
“Has that... I mean...”   
  
“Not before.” Ray nodded.  “And today when he noticed me he tried to talk.” Ray started slowly rubbing Mick’s back, using the water to help make it more fluid.   
  
“He’s never spoken before.” Mick seemed scared by this.   
  
“Maybe it’s this Scorch guy.  You said you could hear him through the fire?”   
  
“Dunno who he is.” Mick was almost trying to curl in on himself as he sat there shivering.  “But...” He bit his lip and looked at Ray.  “I can open myself up to find out...”   
  
“Only if you want to.  It might be better if we wait till we’re around some of the adults with powers that’ll help us understand what’s going on.”   
  
“I....” The water felt noticeably warmer on their skin.  Mick’s voice wavered.  “He....” His eyes began to shine again.  “He’s not from here... he doesn’t belong...” Mick’s voice sounded almost as if it was made of fire.  “He has power over fire... all fire... he feels it... every fire in the world and beyond...” Mick was panting, his voice coming out ragged as he spoke.  “Oh god... he can see me.... he... no... OH GOD NO!” Mick screamed, his skin starting to peal and flake off.  “GO!  NOW!” Ray nodded and ran out of the room just before there was an explosion.  A chunk of the tub smashed through the door he’d closed behind him.   
  
“HOLY FUCKING HELL WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING UP HERE?!” Len stormed back upstairs and Ray pointed at the door.  He opened it slowly and there stood the creature, it’s head tilted to the side as if it was listening to someone.  It started to lunge towards Len but Ray stood up in front of him and the creature stopped.  It frowned and held out hit’s hand, palm flat in front of Ray.  Ray moved his hand and did the same.  The fire wasn’t hurting him.  It was just a warm movement next to his skin.   
  
“R-a-y-m-o-n...” The beast ground out.   
  
“That’s right.” Ray nodded.   
  
“N-o.... h-ur-t... Ra-y-mo-n....” The beast nodded to itself.  It growled and turned towards the window.  It spoke something in the language it had tried to say before.  It kept growling and waving at the window before turning towards Ray again.  “He... wa-nt... h-ur-t... Ray-mon....” It was getting better at speaking in English.  “No... h-ur-t... Ray-mon...” Ray felt their connection, he could feel the creature and Mick in there at the same time.  Felt them both agree on something at the same time.  Hurting Ray was beyond out of bounds.  It was never going to happen.  He cried as he felt them agree on this common ground.  But he felt that third presence.  Felt it try to reach through them and take control over all that power.  Felt it try to reach out and make them kill him.  And with a snarl and something uttered in fire tongue that Ray’s primal part of his brain knew meant no, the creature whirled around and shot something at the wall that vanished before it hit and left Mick standing there panting.   
  
“Are you...” He reached out and when Mick didn’t shudder he put his hand on his shoulder as Mick tried to catch his breathe.   
  
“We need to go some where with a LOT of fucking magic, now.  He’ll be pissed when he wakes up from that.  He’s a fucking talker...” Mick sneered.  “Fucker said Ray’s my anchor and if I’d just kill him I’d have all the power I could ever want and never have to worry about changing back and forth.  I told him to shove it up his fucking ass.” Mick turned and kissed Ray, almost devouring his lips in passion before he pulled back, their foreheads touching.  “No one lays a finger on you.  Especially not me.” He looked Ray in the eyes.   
  
“I feel the same way.” Ray kissed Mick again.   
  
“Get dressed, grab some spare cloths.  We’re going to have to get moving if we want to be anywhere with enough juice to fight off what ever the hell that was.”   
  
“Lance.” Mick said.   
  
“Over Queen?” Len frowned.   
  
“Lance has more experience with demons.” Mick reasoned.  “And Queen scares the crap out of me.”   
  
“Right, Lance it is.  Wheels up in fifteen.” Len ducked out.   
  
“You realize we were just standing here naked for most of that in front of your brother right?” Ray asked after a couple minutes.   
  
“Eh, nothing he aint seen before.  Sides, half the time when the fire gets too big I used to end up walking out of it naked.  He’ll adjust or block it out.  Either way.  I want to get us some where safe and then we can think about things we couldn’t get to last night.” Ray blushed as Mick kissed him again, this time letting his hands roam down their slick bodies and cupping his firm ass, his fingers parting his cheeks in search of his goal when Len’s voice cut across them.   
  
“FOR FUCK SACK GET DRESSED!”   
  
“Yes mother.” Mick smirked into Ray’s lips before they parted.   
  


  
  
“FUCK.” A blond guy in a black tank top covered his eyes as he tried to find his bearings.   
  
“What happened?” A voice asked.   
  
“Some fucker like me is here.” He growled.  “I almost had him but he’s got an anchor.” He panted.   
  
“Let me see.” The voice walked over and moved Scorch’s arm from in front of his face.  “Badly burned.  It’s healing.  I didn’t think fire could hurt you anymore.”   
  
“I can’t.  This... he used infernal flames to burn me.”   
  
“Demon magic.  Interesting.  Not unexpected.” The man in front of him shrugged.  “Some of the people I’ve seen here... magic isn’t just a power to them here.  It’s a way of life.  Much more then on some worlds our master has sent me to.  “Spec, come here.” Another person moved in.  “I need a template for his eyes.”   
  
“Yes sir Evo.” Scorch hissed when he felt the other man’s power on his skin.   
  
“This will hurt but not as much as healing this on your own.” Evo touched the skin and Scorch felt it.  Felt the skin tingling sensation of Evo’s power reaching into his flesh, and not so much mending him as adapting and evolving his healing factor when it came to flames and infernal fire.  He looked up at Evo when he was done, his eyes shining like they were made of liquid fire, almost cat light as they looked up at him.  “Better?”   
  
“Yes.”   
  
“Do not try to reach out to him... not yet.  If there is someone like you here, he might be a problem.”   
  
“Got your prissy little arse kicked did you?” A cocky boy with spiky brown hair grinned from the doorway.   
  
“I’ll show you...”   
  
“Vortez, out.” Evo glanced at him.   
  
“What ever.” He rolled his eyes before walking through empty space and vanishing in a rush of purple fluid.   
  
“I hate him.”   
  
“He helps us move between worlds.  He does not understand what we do.  He only understands his part.”   
  
“Why am I even here?” Scorch frowned.   
  
“The Master called, and you came.  Your task was unfinished I take it?”   
  
“Wasn’t even remotely half way done.” Scorch grumbled.   
  
“And I called you here because this was of greater importance.” A figure hidden in the shadows said.  A golden arch of light, shaped like a set of wings, but only the highlights of them, no physical aspect there, showed behind him.  “I have scraped and clawed my way through the multiverse to find each and every one of you at your best.” Golden eyes turned to the other corner.  “Vox, my living database, did you find your target?”   
  
“Yes master.” A woman with red raven locks bowed, her body clad in some sort of material that covered her almost like a cat suit.  But it was almost as if it was moving as she stood there.  “I present Penelope Paige, Birth Right.” She pulled a bound and gagged woman into the light.  Her hands and mouth bound in violet light that was moving in and out of itself.   
  
“Ms. Paige.  I had to have my operatives crawl all over that Earth for you.  I hope you’ll be worth the wait.” He smiled in the half light caused by his energy wings.   
  
“I’m sure she will be master.” Evo walked over and with a word Vox dropped her bindings off the girl and Evo’s bare hand touched her throat.  His eyes flashed with emerald fire as he held onto her.  And the stone room they were in echoed with Penelope Paige’s screams as every part of her that was human was burned out by Evo’s power.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I recently got asked if I was going to break this story up into smaller sub stories. Maybe. Dunno yet. I hadn’t actually thought about it till I was asked. For now this is going to be one story with a LOAD of characters. You think this has a lot of characters, then you clearly haven’t read My Marked Agents series that merges Anita Blake, Supernatural, Harry Potter, Angel, Buffy, Teen Wolf, and Vampire Diaries together. My computer barely wants to open the connection chart for it it’s so huge. I had to break it down into making one story focusing on one cast of characters at a time, and it’s taking a while to get back into it. So don’t be in a rush for me to start dividing this up like that, because if I do it’ll make it longer between updates. For now, part of the draw for me is the complications of multiple -dozens- of characters.


	5. Night music

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This takes place the night and morning of the last chapter, when they get to school they’re going to have a new crisis on their hands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so, I went to a weird place and was hyper emotional, and the end result was 11 pages of Hannibal’s backstory and I’m leaving it in. Mostly to show my stand point on using Xe and Xim.

Hannibal sat alone in xis room looking at the photo of xis father and mother.  There was a tiny baby in their arms and you could almost make out the shape of the baby.  Hannibal often wondered if xis parents knew what they were bringing home.  To hear xis grandmother talk neither of them had had powers.  No one was quite sure where xis powers had come from.  Just another odd thing xe couldn’t control about ximself.  Xe lay there curled up on xis bed with an old afghan tucked in tight around xim.  The house was chilly these last few weeks.  Not that xe’d noticed it much.  The only person in the world, the only adult, that xe trusted and depended on was gone.   
  
She’d lived a long and full life.  Anna Bates had buried three husbands, two sons, and her only daughter in law.  And now Hannibal was left to figure out how xe was going to pay for her funeral.  Xe’d spent most of the last couple days trying to find all the paper work xe knew she’d filled out about it.  Xe sat there looking at old photos in the dark house, the only light from xis school tablet and it’s near infinite power supply.  Thankfully they hadn’t shut the water off yet.  But the heat was so past due there wasn’t anything xe could do about it.  And the power had gone shortly there after.  Xe hadn’t told anyone because who could xe tell?  Xis boyfriend?  Xis friends?  Xis teachers?   
  
Any ability to trust other people had been drilled out of xim the day xis powers first manifested.  Back then xe’d been a he.  He’d been Hannibal Bates, an odd skinny kid who was quite but people liked him.  That boy had been coming out of the shell he’d been in since his parents had died the year before leaving him with his grandmother.  She’d brought him into her life and accepted him.  Told him from the start that this was his home and always would be.  And then something he couldn’t come back from happened.   
  
He’d been sitting in the middle of a biology lesson, hearing about early onset puberty and symptoms to look out for.  He had no history of powers in his family so he hadn’t known to expect anything special other then slowly becoming a man and getting a wife and getting on with his life.  He’d never really had much of a plan beyond that.  He’d given thought to maybe growing up and doing what his dad had done.  Being a financial adviser, though he often wondered if his grades in math were ever good enough.  He had this imaginary line in his head that he was never going to reach because he’d never be good enough for the memory of his parents.  He’d been so caught up in that thought that he didn’t notice that the teacher was standing next to him.   
  
“Just what’s the meaning of this?” The teacher had glared down at him and Hannibal had looked up at him with confusion.   
  
“Sir I...”   
  
“You’re hair was brown a minute ago.” The teacher pulled one of his locks down and showed him how it was bright blonde now.   
  
“How did....?” He started looking around, confused, as the kids around him snickered.   
  
“He’s a freak.” The kid next to him said, and the teacher started to reprimand the student when the lock of hair he was holding turned inky black like his own and he jumped back from Hannibal.   
  
“What are you?!” The teacher had yelled.   
  
“What’s going on... what...” Hannibal’s confusion was only heightened when the teacher threw something at him and told him to get out of their classroom.  He’d been confused but to a hail of words about being a freak, a monster, not normal, and worse, he’d fled the classroom, sitting in the hall panting and not sure what was going on.  He held his hair in his hands and it slowly turned back to the brown he’d seen in the mirror.  He buried his face in his knees and curled in on himself crying softly in the hall till one of the other teachers found him and frowned.   
  
“Why are you in class Hannibal?” She’d asked.   
  
“Mr. Kross kicked me out.”   
  
“What on earth would he have done that?”   
  
“He said I was a freak.”   
  
“I... I’ll just have a word with him.” She stepped into the door.  “Mr. Kross can I have a word with you.”   
  
“Sure thing Mrs. Fint.” He walked out and spotted Hannibal and quickly moved across the hall away from him.   
  
“Mr. Kross, Hannibal said you called him a freak and kicked him out of class, I...”   
  
“He is a freak.”   
  
“Mr. Kross we don’t...” But Mr. Kross stepped closer and touched Hannibal’s shoulder.  His hair and his face morphing to match Mr. Kross’ face and hair.  “Oh my...”   
  
“What’s going on?” Hannibal cried with Mr. Kross’ voice.   
  
“See what I mean.  He’s... he’s not normal.  He...”   
  
“Hannibal.  It’s... It’ll be okay...” Mrs. Fint put her hand on his shoulder and instantly his hair became the large sweeping dome of auburn hair that she kept so delicately quaft.  And his face became her face, and he was even wearing her large tacky orange necklace with the large orange disks on it over her lime green sweater.  “Oh my...” She stepped back, her hands to her mouth.   
  
“Can we even call him a he anymore?  I mean he’s an it.  And I can’t have it around the other students.  I mean... look at it.”   
  
“Mr. Kross, get a hold of yourself.” She hissed.  “Hannibal... can you turn back?”   
  
“I don’t know.” Her voice came out of his throat.   
  
“Try to think.”   
  
“I thought about how my hair normally looks and it turned back.” He said in a low voice.   
  
“Try that dear.” She was careful not to touch the boy.  He sat there thinking and he slowly melted back into himself.   
  
“You want it, you deal with it.” Mr. Kross moved around him and went back into the classroom, washing his hands of Hannibal forever.   
  
“Let’s... go call your grandmother.” Mrs. Fint smiled, though it didn’t quite reach her eyes.  Hannibal was sad that he was loosing his spot in Mr. Kross’ class.  He liked Mr. Kross and all his friends were in that class.  But he went with her to the office where she had him sit apart from the other students.  She also gave him instructions, that she repeated to the Secretary.  If it started to fill up with students he was to go sit behind the desk with the Secretary but not touch her or anyone else.”   The Secretary had given him an odd look but ignored him for the most part while Mrs. Fint called his grandmother.  She’d had to come down and they’d sat in one of the quiet rooms while Mrs. Fint tried to explain what had happened.   
  
At first his grandmother had thought the poor woman had lost her mind till Mrs. Fint touched Hannibal’s hair and it bled into the same shade red as her own.  She’d explained that she’d gotten him cleared to go home and rest, because she couldn’t imagine him trying to finish the day with this going on.  And if he didn’t feel up to it, she’d clear it with the school that it was okay for him to take a few days off with out getting in trouble.  She told him she’d try to have things sorted with Mr. Kross by tomorrow morning.  He’d nodded and kept his distance from everyone till he was in the car alone with his grandmother.   
  
“You are not an it.” She said as she sat in the quiet car, silently fuming at that man for daring to say that to his face.  “You are my Hannibal.  And so help me god you will always be my Hannibal.  So what if you can change your shape or become other people.  They don’t like it, then they can go suck an egg.  But you are you.  You are a person.  Not an it.  And if anyone ever treats you like you’re less then them because of this, walk away first, because they’re small sad creatures who will never know the length and breadth of the world you do.  But if they wont leave you alone, if they keep coming after you, then you have ever right to stand up for yourself.” She hugged him and that was the first time he transformed fully into someone else.  She’d pulled back when she’d felt the shift in his body and realized she was effectively hugging her twin.  “Oh dear.  I really do need to see about getting my hair done.  That’s just unacceptable for a lady to go out of the house with hair like that.” She tisked at herself and buckled her seat belt.  “Be a dear and make sure you’re buckled in.” She smiled at Hannibal who nodded, adjusting the strap for her larger adult body and sat there quietly as they drove home.   
  
By the time they’d gotten back to the house he was a little boy again.  A little boy who knew what it was like to be a sixty five year old woman.  He felt like himself that night.  She’d made it her highest duty to make sure he felt like he was normal in her house.  Because to her, he was always going to be normal.  Powers or no powers.  He was her Hannibal, and nothing would change that.   
  
Though the following days would push Hannibal beyond what he could understand about himself or his life at that time.  It was all over school by the next day about him and his problem.  And people wanted to see it.  They’d make excuses and cause accidents to touch him and make him change.  A dozen or so times before lunch.  The school nurse was called in and she’d asked him if it hurt.  But he’d told her he felt fine.  Just tired.  With in a week the novelty of it had worn off for the most part till he was walking home and one of the kids from his school was riding in a car with some older boys.   
  
“That him?” They’d asked the other kid.   
  
“Yeah, that’s him.”   
  
“Kid, come here.” He reluctantly came to the car.  “I hear you’re some kind of freak or something?” The guy chuckled at his joke, such as it was.  “Change your hair and stuff at will.”   
  
“yeah...” Hannibal looked at them, confused why they’d care.   
  
“Cool.  Cool.  How fast does it happen?”   
  
“Pretty fa-” He started to say but one of the boys grabbed his wrist and he was transforming into the other guy pretty quick.  In short order he was an exact copy of the guy.   
  
“Nice.  And does it last a while?”   
  
“Sometimes.  If someone else touches me sometimes it change me into them.” He blinked confused.   
  
“What if you try to stay who you are while someone else touches you?”   
  
“I’ve never...”   
  
“Try staying me while Jake touches you.”   
  
“O-okay...” Hannibal blinked and tried to hang on to what it felt like to be this other guy as Jake touched him.  It was the first time he hadn’t instantly transformed into someone else.  And he felt strange about it.   
  
“Nice.  Nice.  Can you change back?”   
  
“S-sure...” It took a little longer but Hannibal was quickly himself.   
  
“It’ll work.  Joey, go on home, I’ll see you later.”   
  
“Okay.” They let Joey out of the back seat and made room for Hannibal, making sure that there was a barrier between them and him.   
  
“We got plans for your talent buddy.” The guy in the front seat chuckled as did the other three guys in the car.  “Can you slow down turning into someone else from yourself?”   
  
“Maybe...”   
  
“Try to make it slow, Jake?”   
  
“Gotcha.” Jake reached over and touched Hannibal’s arm, and Hannibal had to focus extra hard to keep himself but it worked, if he thought about anything else he started to transform.  But then Jake let go of him and he relaxed before turning fully into Jake for a little bit.   
  
“Excellent.” The guy in the front seat had smiled as they drove around town before ending up at the super market.  “Now here’s what I want you to do.  I want you to go buy a pack of gum in lane 3 and make sure you get the change back.  And try to hold it back as long as possible.”   
  
“okay...” Hannibal frowned as he took the money and went in.  He realized as he stood in line that they wanted him to transform into the girl working the register.  He rolled his eyes not sure exactly why they wanted this, but they were being cool about things.  So he bought the gum and she touched his hand for a bit counting the change out.  He nodded, trying to keep his mind on holding off the transformation till he was back safely in the car, and suddenly he was a fully developed eighteen year old woman with long black hair, wearing a supermarket employee’s outfit.   
  
“Sweet.” The guy in front chuckled before giving directions to the guy driving.  They drove for a little while.  Hannibal was told to stay her as long as he could.  Once they went inside they gave Hannibal a sip of some beer to calm him down and relax.  He nodded, his mind mostly blank except for the odd feeling of being in someone else’s skin.  And some where down the line someone suggested he take his shirt off.  He shrugged, it wasn’t his body.  So he took off the top and was sitting there in the black pants, dressed from his waist down, and in a bra from the waist up.   
  
“Cool.  You can take that bra off too.” Someone said and Hannibal frowned but shrugged, laying it on the shirt he wasn’t uncomfortable being topless.  He did it all the time as a boy growing up.  It was just strange to have large breasts there now.  They seemed to almost have a mind of their own as he moved and he wasn’t entirely sure why.  But they gave him more beer and asked him questions about how complete the transformation was.  He answered as best he could.  And slowly they talked him out of his pants and then the panties she’d had on when he touched her.  Sitting there naked so they could see all of her form, he felt weird and started looking for his clothes.  Some where shortly there after they started asking him more sexual questions, and he answered about being a virgin and never having been with anyone.  And they started in with the requests.   
  
Mostly it was bending over, standing back up, moving around at first.  They liked it when he did jumping jacks for them.  But then they wanted him to touch himself.  And one of them took him aside and told him to play act like he was a girl.  And they guided him through touching himself, it was so strange to put fingers in there.  It just felt weird.  But eventually they suggested they could help.  He was drunk enough by this point that they told him to only focus on staying in her shape.  So he made that his only thought and clung to it as they worked their fingers into her body.  But touching and petting quickly turned into full blown sex.  And Hannibal cried about being a boy and they very loudly told him he was a woman now.  That didn’t matter.  He was who he was.  He wasn’t a he, he was a she.  And she was getting fucked.   
  
They fucked her for hours.  Hannibal clung to the concept of being her, used it as his shield.  He wasn’t being raped.  She was being raped.  This was happening to her.  Not him.  Boys couldn’t be raped.  He couldn’t be raped.  Not like this.  Not like... but it kept going and going.  By the time they were done with her they left her naked and alone in the abandoned house they’d been in and they left.  Hannibal had to make his way home.  Letting go of the concept of the woman he’d become for them to rape, he turned into his rapists.  One after the other.  His mind loosing itself as he became them.  Shifting naked from one form to the next.  Stopping to sob and being confused.  He was drifting back and forth and settled on the girl’s form again by the time he got home.  His grandma answered the door and was shocked to find a naked girl on her porch, dripping with the signs of having been with a great deal of men, and shaking like a leaf.  She’d let the poor girl in and wrapped her up with a blanket, all before she realized it was Hannibal she was taking care of.   
  
When the girl passed out, Hannibal transformed back into himself and slept naked, covered in the semen from the boys who’d fucked him when he was a girl.  She’d gotten mad and called the police about it.  When they finally tracked down the boys in question, they said they’d never seen Hannibal.  They were too busy having sex with a woman today.  When they cops pressed them about it, they revealed they’d video taped the whole thing.  The cops watched the tape, and other then telling them to be more respectful of women they told Hannibal and his Grandmother that he’d made the whole thing up.  They refused to so much as take a single sample of the semen the boy had been covered in, and as far as they were concerned the case was closed.  Hannibal started to shut down after that.  Lost in his own head.  Was he an it?  Was he who he became?  Was he a he if he turned into a girl?  The trauma of his rape and the abuse of his powers coupled with everything else was entirely too much for him.   
  
It didn’t take long for him to try to kill himself.  And when his grandmother found him she called 911.  She tried to warn the EMTs about what was going to happen but they started working on him and he transformed into them.  One of the EMTs was afraid but the other told her to go wait in the ambulance as he picked up some sort fob on his key chain.  He pushed it and looked at her.  He’d asked about her powers and she’d explained that none of them had had any powers.  But he’d explained about powers and how they sometimes skipped generations.  But they weren’t as impossibly rare as she’d thought.  Most people just kept it quiet because they didn’t want their family associated with the heroes who came out years later to save humanity with powers that someone had seen in grade school.   
  
He treated Hannibal with care as he slowly regained consciousness and sat with them while someone drove up and it was another woman, her short cropped auburn hair and her white suit making her stand out as she came in and examined the boy.  He flinched from her touch, afraid he’d transform, but was shocked to find out he couldn’t.   
  
“You’re not my first shape shifter.  I cast a protection barrier on myself in the car.  I can touch you for a few hours with out risking you turning into me.  It wont last but it helps.  I take it you’ve never transformed into a girl before?” She’d teased and then he broke down sobbing.  The whole sorted story came out and Hannibal sobbed as he told the whole thing.  The EMT and the woman in white sat there and were patient with him.  She’d taken down the names of the boys involved and asked Hannibal a lot of questions about the people who’d done anything about it at school.  By the time she left she had promised him that he’d be in a different school by morning and no one would ever do this to him again.   
  
He found out later that the School Nurse, who went by Nightmare Nurse, had paid the boys a visit, taken the video and their memories about it and how it had happened.  Then she’d wiped the minds of anyone but his grandma and the EMT who’d helped him, about his powers.  She’d shown up the following morning and took him in her car, that flew, to another school to help him learn to accept himself.   
  
She’d worked hard to explain to him that she wasn’t entirely a she.  She started out life as a genderless demon.  She’d been men, women, boys, and girls, for years and years.  Every time one vessel died or became too injured to carry her on for much longer, she’d transfer into a new body that she’d get informed consent to have.  And she’d always applied a concept of gender fluidity to her situation.  That if she was in the body of a man, then she was a man.  If she was in the body of a woman then she was a woman.  It helped her sort things out.  But talking with Hannibal helped her realize that wasn’t going to work for him.  Eventually they’d stumbled across gender neutral pronouns and she explained that he could go by it, they, or any number of choices.   
  
He explained about how it felt to be labeled a thing, an it, that was less then human because it didn’t fit in.  And he knew he couldn’t ever consciously ask people to call him an it and feel good about himself.  They’d tried they but it made him feel like he was still some how not fitting in.  Like he was more human with a pronoun like that, but he felt... disconnected, and slightly discounted with them and they.   
  
She’d gotten him into some couciling while they worked on it.  To deal with the trauma of not only his past and his powers, but the rape and the fact that he realized, on some level, he’d liked having sex like that.  Not so much the rape and the force, but being a woman with a man inside him.  It took a long time for him to come to terms with that.  And slowly they’d found the Xe and Xim pronouns as he was getting into a better place mentally about his powers and his sexuality.  He adopted the new pronouns and xe became the new person xe was.  Xe’d mostly been isolated and cut off from others at school over the last few years because of xis powers and what they could do.  It wasn’t until he met Kal that xe’d felt comfortable with ximself or xis sexuality.  But having the ability to be any gender had come with a few unexpected side effects.   
  
Xe’d had to take both versions of the sex ed classes.  Learning about the changes to xis male and xis female anatomy.  And learning to understand the signals that xis body was telling xim.  The first time xe had a period while in female form xe gained a greater insight into what it was to be a woman.  Thankfully xe had Nightmare Nurse and xis grandmother to help xim through it.  Though shifting into a male had helped a little, xe couldn’t help but shift back into a female form.  It was how they eventually discovered that while xe could be either gender xe was always in a state of being all genders at once.  Xe could have erections and be sexually active as a male, and xe could be sexual active as a female.  But xis body went through a cycle that was unique because while women cycle once a month for almost a week in some cases males cycle sometimes more then twenty times a day through their hormones.   
  
Xe had xis period once a month, and while xe was having it, it was almost impossible to remain male for any length of time.  But similarly if and when xe was male and xe was cycling down on xis emotions and hormones in male form, xe would have trouble becoming a female.  It was getting easier for xim but it still wasn’t perfect.  Kal had been a trooper though.  He’d gone on dates with xim as both male and female, cuddled with both, kissed both, and as of not too long ago, had sex with both.  Hannibal smiled slightly at the thought of that.  Xe’d liked being under Kal, xis body open and taking Kal in as they made love.  Just as much as xe had when Kal had been the one under xim as xe took his virginity.  Kal had loved every minute of both experiences so they’d made it easier to be either gender when they were together.  It sometimes took more work, and Hannibal kept kits on hand when xe could to help with situations as they arose.  But for the most part they’d found a happy medium for their life together.   
  
And Hannibal was feeling shitty for not telling Kal about what happened with xis grandmother.  Xe was thinking about it when xis Kryptonian pad activated.   
  
“Hannibal?  Are you okay?” Kal asked as he sat in his well lit bedroom.   
  
“Yeah I was just thinking about you.” Hannibal smiled softly, ximself in xis natural form.   
  
“I guess that’s why the tablet called me.  Is everything fine?”   
  
“I..” Hannibal stopped and sighed.  “No it’s not.”   
  
“What’s wrong?”   
  
“My grandma died... and I’m alone... I don’t have the money for bills.  I don’t have any heat or electricity.  I haven’t had any real food other then what I eat at school since, and I’ve been learning how to cook simple things by trying to become various people with heat powers.” Xe bit xis lip.   
  
“Hannibal...” Kal looked sad.  “You should have told me.... I...”   
  
“I know.” Hannibal blushed.  “I just... I was ashamed and I have problems asking for help.”   
  
“I know.  It’s why I’m not mad.  Can I come over?”   
  
“Yeah.” Hannibal smiled and Kal talked xis ear off till he had to hang up and go talk to his dads.  A short time later Kal showed up. floating outside his bedroom window.   
  
“The girls said you didn’t get out of food that easily.” He held up a picnic basket.  “We need to talk about what happens next, what our next move is, but we’re going to do that tomorrow.  My dads are going to help you get everything set up and they’ll listen to you and your input on what happens next.” Kal smiles.  “For now though, you’re going to eat, and then we’ll cuddle and I’m going to sleep over to keep you warm.  And in the morning we’ll see about getting something hammered out, okay?”   
  
“Okay.” Hannibal smiled before setting up an old card table to eat off of up in xis room.  They ate and talked and Hannibal went and took a cold shower before coming back in just xis boxers and climbing into bed where Kal spooned behind xim, wrapping his strong arms around his boyfriend’s smaller body.   
  
“I love you.”   
  
“I love you too.” Hannibal smiled as xe snuggled down to bed.   
  
“Sleep.” Kal smiled back as they curled up and passed out for the night.  In the morning Hannibal woke up alone in bed and felt  a little abandoned till he noticed breakfast set out for xim on the table.  Xe smiled, sitting down to eat and once xis stomach was full heading out in search of Kal.  Xe found him, stripped down to just his jeans as he worked on installing something onto the water heater.   
  
“Hey.” Hannibal smiled, blushing slightly as xe realized xe had breasts again.   
  
“Hey yourself.” Kal smiled.  “I managed to heat up enough hot water for your morning shower.  And it’ll stay warm for most of the day.  It’s a good water heater, it’s just not got the power to keep things hot for as long as you’ll need them.  So I picked up this.” He tapped the pod he’d attached to the water heater.   
  
“And it does?”   
  
“Effectively, it powers the house with a Kryptonian fusion cell.” He attached something to it and the lights came on in the basement.   
  
“My hero.”   
  
“Thanks.  You’ll likely have to file paper work with the city to get a tax break for supplying power to the grid or something like that.  But at least you’ll have free power to keep your house going.”   
  
“Thank you.” Hannibal moved forward, taking Kal’s hand and putting it on xis breast as xe leaned up and kissed Kal.   
  
“You should shower before school.” Kal broke the kiss, blushing and turned on.   
  
“You could always join me in the shower...”   
  
“I... we...” Kal blushed.   
  
“We could even try some new positions.”   
  
“N-new... positions.” Kal swallowed, having to adjust his arousal which was threatening to tear his jeans open.   
  
“Never been you in the shower before... might be interesting to see who tops who.” Hannibal reached out and transformed ximself into Kal before shedding xis boxers and standing there completely naked and aroused, the picture of Kryptonian genetic engineering.  “You want to see if you can wrap your lips around this fat Kryptonian cock?” Hannibal shook xis new cock at Kal.   
  
“Oh I’m going to enjoy this...” He pealed off his jeans and left them there as he flew them upstairs.  Kal looked into his own eyes on Hannibal’s face and kissed xim.  He kept kissing and kissing till he pulled back and looked his boyfriend in xis eyes.  “I love you.  All of you.  Any of you.” He knelt down and took the copy of his own cock to his lips, kissing the tip and licking a wide swatch across the head.  “And no mater what I’ll always love you.” He swallowed around the tip and Hannibal’s words were lost in xis pleasure.   
  
“Fuck...” Hannibal moaned as xe was swallowed whole down Kal’s throat.   
  


  
  
Hannibal was curled up next to Kal checking xis message when an alert came across xis tablet.  “Uh crap.”   
  
“What is it?” Kal rubbed his eyes, his hair a wild tangled mess of a mane.   
  
“Magic problem at school.  The alert is asking anyone who’s takes extra damage from magical attacks to stay away from school today and head to the secondary location.”   
  
“So basically the aliens of my family.”   
  
“And a few other people.  I’m being asked to come in because of my ability to duplicate other people’s powers to a limited amount.  They want Axel and I to work with the magicians and try to protect Mick.”   
  
“Mick?  What happened?”   
  
“Someone attacked his other side.”   
  
“Shit.”   
  
“Yeah, he’s having trouble controlling it.”   
  
“Go.  I’ll fly home and get rounded up for the safe house.”   
  
“Love you.”   
  
“Love you too.” Hannibal kissed Kal and got out of bed heading for this cloths.   
  
“When you get done tonight, I want to have a serious talk about your living situation.”   
  
“Kal.” Hannibal sighed.   
  
“It matters to me because you matter.  I’m not just giving up on this.”   
  
“I know.” Hannibal smiled softly before turning to xis boyfriend.  “I’ll see you later.” Xe put on xis cloths and shifted into Tommy Merlyn to fly away.   
  
“Hey dad?” Kal picked up his hybrid phone.   
  
“Yeah is it?” J’onn picked up.   
  
“You guys get the alert?” He stretched laying naked in Hannibal’s bed.   
  
“Yes.  Where are you?”   
  
“Hannibal’s  I hooked up a Kryptonian power cell here.  I was wondering if you could send Harrison over to check on my work.”   
  
“Why did you give your boyfriend a powerful piece of alien technology.”   
  
“Because xis grandma died and xe was freezing to death in the house with out power or heat.”   
  
“Kal...”   
  
“Just have Harrison check my work.  I want xim to be comfortable and I want xim to be safe.  I’m good with Kryptonian tech, but I trust him more to double check my work.”   
  
“And it doesn’t hurt that your father isn’t like us and doesn’t have to go to the safe house when there’s a magic out break.”   
  
“Yeah.” Kal smiled.   
  
“Okay.  I’ll send him.  Just get to the safe house.”   
  
“Will do.” Kal hung up, smiling and floating up out of bed before he speed dressed and double checked the house was locked up and texted his other father where he put the key to the basement.  Once that was taken care of he headed to the safe house.  It was a separate building, similar to Sky High it floated above the city, but alternately it was built out of nth metal they acquired from the Thanagarians.  The metal itself disrupted magic.  But when combine with the Thanagarian runes and a web of nth metal reactors it created a barrier that magic couldn’t cross.  They used it exclusively for two things.  One to house dangerous criminals who could use magic to cut them off from it, and to protect those who were vulnerable to magic.  There were fewer criminals up here today thanks to the two Thanagarians who were living on Earth that had started building nth metal reinforced prisons on Earth to cut the magical criminals off from their magic.   
  
“Hey Kal.” Raven was standing at the boarder of the campus.   
  
“You in charge of locking us in?” He smiled.   
  
“Yep.  Fate’s busy at the school.  I’ll use a small charge to spark the reactors and get them producing their anti-magic field and you guys should be safe.”   
  
“My family in yet?”   
  
“Yep.  Already in the library studying.  I think J’onn’s antsy for this to be over.  He’s doubly affected by fire magic.  And Mick’s powers are going nuts.”   
  
“I heard.  Am I the last one?”   
  
“Not yet.  I think there’s one last straggler.” She rolled her eyes as he crossed the line to see who was left.  A few minutes later someone flew by and dropped Rene off.   
  
“You’re weak against magic?” Kal frowned.   
  
“Empath.  I can feel the strain from every spell they cast multiplied across every user and the pain Mick’s in.  I went down hard.  I was able to be in the same room with Mick for a few seconds before I started screaming.  So they brought me here.  Figured the walls would help block out what I saw.”   
  
“What’d you see?” Raven asked quietly indicating he should cross the line she was standing by.   
  
“The thing that’s inside him.  Saw it. Saw it’s world.  Where it’s from.  Saw how it’s fighting to not fall under this evil dude’s control.  It’s scared.  Wicked scared of who ever this new guy is.”   
  
“Well that actually helps.” Raven’s eyes flashed as she chanted under her breath and shot a blast at a cube near them.  The second the energy touched it, white lines showed where there were actually seems on the metal before runes began to glow on it.  Then he shot a beam of light at the cubes of metal every few feet, repeating this till they all were active and began firing rays of arched light over the top and bottom of the school till there was a white liquid light barrier all around the school like a shell.  “You should be safe now.  I’ll come back and shut them down when it’s clear.”   
  
“Thanks Raven.” Kal waved her off as she flew away.   
  
“I don’t like cages.”   
  
“Neither do I.” Kal nodded leading the way to the library where he figured everyone was probably doing homework waiting on this to be over with.   
  


  
  
“Quintin.” Moira stood outside the isolation lab where they had Mick sitting in a circle of magic that Oliver was finishing up.   
  
“Moira.” Quintin walked up, his hockey stick in his hands.   
  
“Do you think this warrants opening the door.” She glanced at Mick, who had several magical heroes looking at his tattoo and running diagnostic spells over him.   
  
“I wish it didn’t.” He sighed.  “But someone came into our reality with power over fire, and attacked someone with magic we don’t understand.  I think it’s time to get them involved.”   
  
“Agreed.” Moira took a step closer to Mick.  “Everyone out.” The other heroes nodded and left her and Quintin alone, except Ray, Len, and Oliver who were in the room still.   
  
“What are you...” Ray started.   
  
“You’re the boy’s anchor.  You stay.  Leonard, I trust you because you’re effectively the boy’s father and brother.  And Oliver you need to see this.” She nodded and turned to Quintin.  “The doors please.” He stamped the handle of his hockey stick to the ground and the doors and windows all closed, the shades drawn putting them in a twilight broken only by the glow of Mick’s tattoo.   
  
“Across the seas of time.” Quintin started.   
  
“To the trees of long ago.” Moira’s voice joined his in tone.   
  
“In the grove of crystals.”   
  
“By the runes set down by Merlin himself.”   
  
“Two children of the order stand before you.”   
  
“We beseech the unseen door.”   
  
“Make way for we humble travelers.”  The room seemed to be flying away from them, as they spoke, each circling around each other, their eyes locked and their hands on the staff like handle of the hockey stick as it floated mid air, runes flashing over it’s surface as it became transparent, like some sort of crystal with magic floating in it.   
  
“Open the way.” They said together and suddenly they weren’t in Sky High any longer.  Instead they were standing in some ancient looking castle.   
  
“Welcome to the School with no Doors.” Moira looked at the four children.”   
  
“That was... I’ve never heard that spell.” Oliver frowned.   
  
“The School with no Doors is only for magicians.  It trains only the magic wielders.  You weren’t going to even know about this place till graduation from Sky High.  You’d have continued your studies here.”   
  
“Where is here?” Mick frowned, his tattoo starting to flicker.   
  
“It’s an extra dimensional realm that Merlin created that’s some where between Earth and Avalon.  No one’s quite sure on the exact location.  Just that it’s here, and older then anyone but maybe Malcom.  It’s also the biggest collection of magic in the known universe.”   
  
“We who have graduated from the school are the only ones who can open the doorway here.  And it takes two of us to agree to open it.  And it’s removed enough from the mortal realms to protect you from this Scorch and his powers.”   
  
“I’m not so sure.” Mick walked up to a fire that seemed to be both in and on a torch with out actually consuming it.  “The fire’s different here.  It’s made of words.” He kept starring at it.  “I can almost hear them.  But I think he’s aware of them, just not where they are or how they are.”   
  
“He can see through fire?” Moira frowned.   
  
“Every fire.”   
  
“Hang on.  You can tell the difference between that and real fire?” Quintin frowned.   
  
“Yeah.  Regular fire’s not as chatty.” Mick shrugged.   
  
“It talks to you?”   
  
“Yeah.  It doesn’t you?”   
  
“No.  Once we cast the spells, that’s it.”   
  
“Huh.  Yeah every fire in this place is mumbling to itself.” Mick blinked as he looked around.   
  
“What’s it saying?” Moira stepped closer.   
  
“Ig-nis pro-thane, ignis moragain, ignis...” His lips were trying to form the unknown words, tiny flickers of blue light were forming near his hands.   
  
“That’s enough.” Moira waved her hand, distracting him before he finished the spell, and eyeing Quintin.   
  
“What is it?” Mick frowned.   
  
“It’s part of the keeper’s spell for the flames.  When invoked it creates a living flame that can not ever be extinguished.  You can hear the words, in every flame?”   
  
“They’re repeating it.  Over and over again, all in sync.” Mick glared at one.  “It’s noisy.”   
  
“Most can not hear it.” A voice came out of the shadows, his smoldering eyes were the first thing they really saw, lilac and amber swirling in the dark as he stepped out, his dark hair cut in a kind of wave like pattern, and his beard was closely cut to his face.  He was dressed in a kind of black leather as he stood there.   
  
“Who’s this?” Len frowned.   
  
“I,” He smiled deceptively charmingly.  “am older then anyone you’ve ever met and probably more powerful as well.  I am incapable of stepping foot outside this realm with out damaging the fabric of reality now.  So I stay here.  Moira, Quintin.  Why have you brought a child of the flame into my home?”   
  
“He’s under siege.” Moira answered.   
  
“He is bound to a demon.” Quintin added.   
  
“My deer sweet children, he isn’t bound to it.  He and it are one.  Two souls made one long ago.  An act of evil may have birthed the demon nature of the boy into being, but it struck a bargain long ago.  It simply required a realization of both of their parts that the bargain’s contract had been fulfilled.” Suddenly he was behind Ray.  “Interesting.  You are the boy’s anchor.  You offer him uncompromising love eternal.  A rare trait in people your age.” He smiled.  “A cherished and welcome sight in this place.” He nodded.   
  
“How’d he...” Oliver started.   
  
“He walked through the fold in space.” Mick replied, all eyes turned to him.  “What you guys didn’t see that?”   
  
“A quick study and an astute one at that.  No they couldn’t see it.  The magic of it is beyond them.  But not you.  Interesting.”   
  
“I don’t think anyone’s ever called me quick before.” Mick crossed his arms.   
  
“My dear boy, anyone who ever insulted your intelligence was simply too blind to see where your gifts lay.” He moved his hands and pulled something seemingly out of mid air.   
  
“Nice variation of the Debora conjuring, how’d you do it with out having something with a scale pattern on it?” Mick looked him in the eyes.   
  
“A ring with a chimera scale in it.” The man’s eyes twinkled as he looked in Mick’s.   
  
“Interesting.  Must allow you to also do the Keymark iteration.”   
  
“I hadn’t thought of that.” He smiled.  “Moira, do be a dear and pop back with Quintin and let Watch Tower know I think I know why Scorch has come to our Earth.” He turned to them.   
  
“Why?” Quintin frowned.   
  
“Because they needed someone to counter act this boy’s powers before he could learn to control them.  But they tipped their hand at the wrong moment.  The boy was lost in the strength of his power.  Allowing the pair of them to realize that they had an anchor has accelerated what should have happened ages ago.”   
  
“What’s that?” Mick frowned.   
  
“Your true nature.”   
  


  
  
“Is it done Evo?” Metatron’s voice came out dark and husky from his corner.   
  
“The first few rounds have been... difficult.  Birth Right is trying to use her powers to prevent me from using mine.  But so far I’m winning out.  She’s getting more powerful.”   
  
“We need her alive.”   
  
“I know my lord.  It is why I am going slowly.”   
  
“I will allow it for now.” His voice sounded final.   
  
“My lord, Scorch wishes to know...”   
  
“He wants to know why I called him off of trailing the heroes from that other Earth and away from his mission to infiltrate the maze.  Because I have a better use for him.  He will be the key to giving me one of the Keepers of that Maze and putting a face to my enemies at last.”   
  
“Yes my lord.” Evo bowed.   
  
“For now keep to your task.  Bend her flesh to our task.  And bring her to our purpose.” He stepped out of the shadows, his face pale and his short black hair looking a touch grey.  “I will have need of her power soon.” His eyes glowing as his wings of light began to flicker.  “You must hurry Evo.  Make her capable of holding my essence.”   
  
“I will my lord.” Evo took a hold of Birth Right’s limb body and began the work again.   
  


  
  
“Watch Tower, this is Moira Queen.” Moira’s voice came from a file on Chloe’s desk’s data stream.   
  
“Moira, what’s up?”   
  
“We think we figured out some of Metatron’s plans here.  He brought someone named Scorch through the rift this morning and his abilities effected Mick Rory.”   
  
“How’s that...”   
  
“We took him to the School with no Doors.”   
  
“What did the master say?”   
  
“That they need Mick out of the way to get to what he’s after.  They were hoping to have Mick kill his boyfriend with his powers so that he wouldn’t have been a threat, instead they gave Mick a kind of control he hasn’t had before.  We’re supposed to bring you into the Sanctuary.”   
  
“I’ll be there.” Chloe stood up and touched her mirror, the world rippled away with purple energy till she was standing in a library in an ancient castle.   
  
“Hello fellow traveler.” The man who had met Moira and Quintin’s group was sitting in an over stuffed plum colored chair looking at her.   
  
“What’s the boy guarding?”   
  
“Something that had my people known was here would have raided this place till they found it.” He sipped his drink.  “The boy is a guardian of the casket.”   
  
“He’s guarding a grave?”   
  
“No.  You miss understand me. The Casket contains something.  Something so powerful it was split into four sections and cast through out all matrices of reality.  Can you imagine that?  In all the clusters of multiverses only four of something exist?” He looked at her, his eyes like liquid pools of lilac and amber.  “The boy protects one of the pieces.  Metatron seeks them.  If he’d have ruined the boy with Scorch he might have been able to force him to relinquish his portion.  It’s the same reason we are hunting all the Roy Harpers in all realities.  Because we know in ONE of them he will be one of the Guardians.  We’re taking the long route of going one by one through each multiverse and picking them up and testing them.  It’s the point of the maze.  But no one ever suspected Mick Rory of possessing a piece of it.” He smiled.  “A man the world paints as a fool but is actually quite intelligent if given the chance, is the perfect place to hide a piece of something that everyone would want.  A package designed to always make those around it need to express how much better they are over it so that they would never think to look deeper.” He looked at his own mirror, it’s quick silver fluid nature with ripples of blue energy.   
  
“Do they know you came here?”   
  
“No.  I left the Hierarchy long ago.  The day Earth Prime became a baron wasteland I saw what our quest in this war would do.” He shook his head.  “I want free of this war, but I will not sacrifice lives to get there.”   
  
“So you know what this war is about.”   
  
“My dear child.  I was there when this war started.”   
  
“Who are we fighting?  Who are we at war with?”   
  
“My dear girl.” His voice like crushed velvet.  “We are up against something so large, so massive that your mind can not begin to comprehend it.  We are fighting against the things that gave rise to the titans, that birthed gods, and shaped the worlds into being.  We’re up against the creators of the multiverse themselves.”   
  
“What are they called.” Chloe sat down hard, her legs barely able to hold her as she collapsed, the knowledge that this war she’d taken the mantle of was so much larger then she’d ever dreamed of.   
  
“They call themselves the Arkrellians.” He looked her in the eyes.  “And if they didn’t have their hands full dealing with other factions in other multiverses they probably would have noticed what has happened to our little multiverse by now.  If they had, they’d have sent someone here to stop Metatron.  They don’t want someone like him gaining something like the Casket any more then we do.”   
  
“But if they’re against him then...”   
  
“They’re the ones who wiped out your universe my dear sweet girl.  They wiped out your entire multiverse.”   
  
“But... why...”   
  
“That, that I do not know.  But I can tell you this much.  If we can contact someone in another multiverse we might just stand a chance.  He once helped me, long ago.  So long ago in fact that he has no memory of doing it.  But to do that... I’m going to have to explain something to you.  Something that will shake your the very foundation of everything you know and everything you thought was real.”   
  
“Tell me everything.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh good gods. I’ve gone and done it. I’ve gone and done it now. Not only did I just write a very heavy Hannibal chapter, but I went and I did something even more huge. If you only knew... gods. The Arkrellians... they from another series I write on here. Which is occurring in an entirely DIFFERENT universe. You might have read it. Marked Agents’ Diaries? I just basically stated that this, this complicated series that links a LOT of my Flash stories together as happening in the same multiverse inside the same matrix... is in itself inside the matrices of the Marked Agents’ series. FUCK. -bangs head- so much is going to be going on in short order with this series. Expect another spin off chapter soon, and next chapter this mysterious new man is going to tell us all about how the war started. I suggest after that you go read Marked Agents, and Marked. It’ll paint them in a COMPLETELY different light. I am also hoping to get time to re-read marked and get the final chapters of it out soon. I have my notes found and organized and with any luck I’ll be able to make sense out of them soon. Let’s put it this way, Marked and the entire Marked Agents universe has it’s own box of research and an entire binder all it’s own. And I just went and added a whole new matrix of universes to the list of what’s connected... gods that connection chart is going to take forever. Do you realize the chart is ALREADY 22 mb, I can barely open it on my pc. I need to see about getting the editing software on my laptop or something just to EDIT it. -sighs- and I just realized that Dying of the Light is connected to this... FUDGE. -bangs head again-


	6. Enlightenment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The time has come, my friends, to talk of many things...

“The first thing you need to do to understand what I’m about to tell you is to forget everything you think you know about time, space, reality, the multiverse, and beyond.” His voice was even as the room seemed to become hazy.  “There are so many matrices now, it’s hard to keep track of them all.  But what you call Earth-95, is actually DCU-E-95a.” His eyes glowed in the half light as he looked almost through her.   
  
“And we are a LONG way from my home.” He sat up straighter.   
  
“Long before I was born there was one matrix and one universe.  No one I know of knows what it was called.  Only that the only form of life that existed there was the Arkrellians.  Imagine it.  An entire universe where ever sentient form of life in the entire universe were not only the same species but the same race.  Everyone you would ever meet looking exactly the same as you.  Roughly five foot tall, pale olive skin, no eyes, large bulbous head, ears so large and twisted they verge on almost horns sticking straight out the side of their heads.  Their foreheads open up to reveal an exposed mint and sea foam colored brain, and their body is mostly covered in an exo-skeletal shell.  And these seemingly innocent looking creatures, they’re what started this fucking war in the first place.   
  
From what we’ve gathered over the years, the Arkrellians were the only race to ever develop in their universe.  And like most things that walk the Earth, they spread to every corner of creation looking for other life.  When they realized that they were alone they began to study science and sorcery, but with a level that has never existed outside their home universe.   
  
From that rose their four most prominent powers that we’ve ever noticed.  The first of which is the ability to create forces.  You’ve seen metas who could control gravity, light, dark, all the primal forces of the universe in one flavor or another.  The Arkrellians not only can control all of those at once, but they can create them, destroy them, and create brand new ones at will.  Imagine facing something that can simply remove gravity from existing from an entire universe all at once.  They’ve shattered whole galaxies simply by changing one force.  And if that wasn’t bad enough they have more powers.   
  
Like the power to build worlds.  Not just a planet or a solar system.  But they can create entire matrices of multiverses with as much thought as we would put into using a microwave.  They have technology that widens their power to give them more latitude on the worlds they can create.  But if a universe or an entire matrix isn’t turning out the way they want it to... they simply remove it from existence.  I’m not sure what test your matrix failed, but they obliterated your matrix and created the current matrix we’re in on top of it.  It’s how you were eventually found floating out between multiverses, an echo of an earlier version of this matrix.   
  
Then there’s their power to create artifacts.  Imagine being able to have all the powers of any hero you can name simply by wearing a bracelet or a pair of boots or a hat.  They can turn any object they want into an artifact and with that grant it any power up to the full power of one of their own kind.  It’s a dangerous power to create an item that when activated can do anything your imagination can conceive.  It’s lead to more then one whole universe being obliterated because someone tried to pick up an Arkrellian artifact and use it.  Their power is not meant for us.   
  
Their greatest power though, is the ability to not only create both order and or chaos, but to replace them, interchange them, or obliterate them.  Image a world where everything runs smoothly where there is no conflict, no change, no randomness, and then in a blink of an eye no one remembers that they all only know the chaos of constant change that nothing ever stays the same forever.  It takes a universe from a stable thing to something who’s entire nature changes with each person’s perception and position in that universe.  You don’t even have to wipe out the universe, you just flip that switch and watch the people inside tear themselves apart trying to figure out what the hell just happened.  Likewise, they’ve used it on worlds like this one to take away all the powers of everyone in the universe, making it totally ordered and removing all resistance to their authority.   
  
With these four powers under their belts they set about the great task.  From what we understand of the great task, it was to explore all possible evolutionary paths for life.  They effectively decided they were going to study life in every possible form.  So they created the matrices.  Though would it surprise you that they created only eight universes to begin with?” He smiled at her as he took a sip from his drink he conjured.   
  
“Eight universes to test out their theories of other life in.  And in a result that no one expected, every choice that any life form made in those eight worlds created another entirely different world.  The branching events eventually lead to there being eight primary matrices.  Each one a matrix of universes based off of the seed world that sat at the center of it.  The 0,0,0 of each matrix is the original universe seed.  And with time they realized that a choice made in that seed was too dangerous to the whole matrix so they sealed off the seed worlds.  But they also realized that there was an element they didn’t expect.   
  
This element was major branching events.  If an entire matrix some how managed to hit the same branching event or close enough to the same, at roughly the same time, the matrix could effectively create an entirely new matrix.  My people were born to one such matrix, born from one of the original eight.  As were you.  And like in either of our universes, life flourished, our universes became a multiverse.  And each multiverse set became it’s own matrix.  And we were just beginning to understand this and map our matrix when we realized there was something unusual about our world.  The universe I came from was my matrix’s seed world.  Once we realized that we started charting and exploring the branching events and how to use them to open doors through the Arkrellian shields that kept the rest of the multiverse out of our world.   
  
The only problem with separating off from our home universe was communication and returning.  It took us time but we learned how to create quantum vacuoles.  These Vacuoles used the language that the Arkrellians invented to program seed worlds, to effectively allow us to have programmable micro universes to bridge the gap in our multiverse.  Eventually we formed a great conglomeration that spread through out our entire matrix.  Every universe connected, knowing about each other, sharing knowledge, and learning.  We improved ourselves, our culture, our technology.  We were beginning to understand aspects of our creation.  And as we realized that we were not a singular matrix we began to reach out and try to explore other matrix.   
  
Which apparently was forbidden.” His eyes grew darker some how, as if a shadow passed over him.  “The Arkrellians have a vision for their eight experiments.  They do not allow for cross contamination.  And if a matrix is beginning to reach out to the others, and endanger the experiments... the Arkrellians intervene.  They began to seed agents into our worlds.           We called them Arbiters.  They looked like us.  They sounded like us.  But they weren’t of us.  They were simply wearing our façade to get closer to our leaders.  Once they understood us and were close enough... they decided we were too big a threat.  So they gathered into our seed world... and they killed every single one of us in that universe.  Closed the vacuoles in and out of it, and destroyed it.  Once our seed was atomized, the other worlds began to crumble.  We fought them.... Bloody wars as they went world by world trying to ensure we couldn’t leave.  That’s when we saw them.  We saw their true faces as they hunted us down in death squads to cleanse each universe before it’s eventual collapse.”   
  
“But...” Chloe stopped as she frowned.   
  
“What?” He looked at her with curious eyes.  “Were you going to ask why kill us if our worlds were collapsing?”   
  
“Yeah.  It doesn’t make any sense.  If you were going to die anyway, why kill you faster?” She frowned.   
  
“That was the question we asked ourselves.  And we realized the answer.  While a universe is collapsing, it becomes an unstable point in the matrix and allows for transit in and out of the matrix shell.  If even one of us was alive in a universe as it’s last seconds happened, we could theoretically use a vacuole to escape our matrix and contaminate any one of the other experiments.  So they were wiping us out as fast as they could.  We realized this and we set a trap.   
  
We abandoned several worlds that they were approaching.  They scanned the for life, and when there was none, they sent probes to double check.  Once a world was tagged as empty, they’d move on.  They’d keep tabs on it until it destabilized, but they moved on from the world.  We waited inside the matrix, cloaked and out of phase in a small cluster of vacuoles that we managed to salvage from outer worlds.  And we entered a world as it dissolved.  The result was we managed to leave our universe.  We fell out of time and space and entered the howling maw of the abyss beyond the matrices.   
  
A twisted formless dimension of nothingness that the Arkrellians use as a sterilizing agent against the chance escape of subjects from a single matrix.  We barely survived.  We lost hundreds of our survivors.  Ultimately there were three vacuoles that survived and we made it to the nearest matrix.  It wasn’t the parent matrix that had birthed our matrix.  But it was another one entirely.  And we realized there was no life in the first universe we landed in that remotely resembled us.” He smiled.  “Imagine coming from a universe where every form of life is a solid argon based life form, and coming to a universe where everyone is carbon based.  It was a shock to our systems.  So we picked an empty world and settled there.  We did make one interesting discovery about our new home.  We’d blundered into a matrix that the Arkrellians were studying what happened if everyone knew about them.  They had a decent amount of transparency with the people of that matrix and utilized them to build their war fleets for unruly universes.  We altered our biology so that we blended in with the people of that universe and went to work for the Arkrellians.   
  
Phase disrupters, quantum inverters, and weapons that your people have no word for.  We built them and learned their inner workings.  In the end we figured out how to reinforce our vacuoles and we left that matrix assuming it too dangerous.  Traveling once more into the Howling... we stumbled across another matrix.  One where they took a hands off approach.  No powers, no magic, no advanced technology.  They were using it to study behavior, and to see how people adapted.  By chance we came across one of their agents.  He was in one of their war ships and thankfully he was dissatisfied with his station in life.  He showed us how to get to a matrix that had been cleared of all life  because they used it for force testing.  And we helped him leave their ranks and take his ship to start trying to make the matrix better.   
  
He had this interesting theory.  What if you went to the seed world, and traveled back and forth through it’s time line, altering choices for the better.  Remove bad possible futures, to alter the time lines of multiple realities so that they were intrinsically better because all that was left for them was good choices.  We left him as he reconfigured the war ship to look like a dive bar.  And we left for the abandoned matrix.  We found it easily enough.  And while there we found the materials we needed to build better and better vacuoles.  Till eventually we were ready to look for a place where we could learn, grow, and maybe just survive long enough to figure out how to prove to the Arkrellians we weren’t a threat.  And at the time, we thought it was a good idea.” He looked down. “I actually believed we could have proven our worth to beings who saw us as inconsequential specks.” He shook his head.   
  
“Oh that I could know then what I know now.  But that’s the consequences of learning from your actions.  You finally understand what you should have done when you can’t change it.  My people have strict views on time travel and we refuse to alter our own histories.  Even to save our people.  So we searched until we stumbled across a matrix where they were studying the effects of powers.  Powers in objects, powers in people, and we realized it had dozens of split off matrices.  It was the perfect place to study.  So much going on the Arkrellians could barely keep up with it.  So we searched for the perfect place to settle down and we found a place that can only be described as Heaven.” He looked up at her.  “Heaven is a tangible place, simply out of phase as a linked realm with in each universe.  We decided to study it.  And we encountered beings of pure radiant light.  They were photon based life forms that I believe you call Angels.   
  
They welcomed us.  And we learned from them.  And we enjoyed being with them.  But there was one amongst their number that didn’t like our presence.  He was the first Angel.  The father of their race.  And he was the most powerful of their number.  His name was Proctus.  He took a band of angles known as Archangels and decided to inform us that our welcome was run out.  He killed more then half our numbers, leaving only a handful of us to try to make it to our vacuoles.  We only barely escaped with our lives.  But we were there long enough to see what happened.  Their creator.  I believe your people call him God.  He wasn’t happy that Proctus had made war with a race he didn’t create.  And he took Proctus and broke him.”   
  
“Broke him?” Chloe frowned.   
  
“Angels are made of pure light, but are given form by a shell... a sarcophagus that God hand made for each of them.  A sort of construct that they inhabit that generates their body.  If they die they simply respawn through a crystal archway that God placed in the center of Heaven.  But he wanted to make an example of Proctus.  So he tore that sarcophagus into four parts and threw it out into the matrix.  With each sarcophagus he sent a special kind of being he created using what he learned of our technology and of the Arkrellian technology we’d brought with us and he created the Heralds.  Each one could change their shape and form and would travel through out the multiverse and the matrices to hide the fragments from Proctus.”   
  
“He wasn’t dead?”   
  
“No.  Far from it.  Though I suspect he wished he was.  No.  Proctus was dead only in name.  He took on the name of another Angel when he was cast out.  Metatron.” He saw a look of fear cross her face.  “Yes.  The being you face, the unknown meta human who has powers and seeks out the most powerful metas in all of creation, was once an Angel.  The first Angel.  Cast out into the matrix he wandered.  A fragment of his powers left, he had to find a host who could contain him and he’s had a string of them over the eons.  But he hunts out people with powers to create a better host for himself.  To add to his powers so he can hunt down the pieces of his sarcophagus and repair himself, make himself whole again and walk through the gates of Heaven to conquer it.  Later one of his Archangels would rebel and leave to conquer Hell and I don’t know what happened to him after that.   
  
But I know Metatron has been hunting for his fragments all this time.  I don’t know if he’s found any.  But I do know he hasn’t found one of them.  It’s the reason why my people have focused in on Roy Harper so much.  We left that matrix and entered one of the other matrices.  Actually the matrix we’re in now.  The DCU.  We were looking for a place to settle down that was quieter and we found a place where space time had broken down.  Space was still there, but time had all but stopped in that area.  It was a dead zone.  We decided to operate out of that and we built a few vacuoles to start living out of.  And I suggested we reach out to some of the other worlds and universes and get to know our neighbors.  So we sent a team out and found a DCU-E-13.  A world where sorcery ruled the universe.  We met versions of each and every one of the people I’ve known here or you’ve likely met, but twisted by magic and the seduction of powers beyond understanding.   
  
While we were there, learning the arts of sorcery, which I took more to heart then my counter parts.  We stumbled across one of the Heralds.  He’d taken on the mantle of Jacob Todd.  A boy who’s history was edited into the universe to make him fit in.  He’d lived in a poor neighborhood, trying to get money up for even the most basic spells ingredient, when an angelic artifact joined with him, making him ‘Agustin’ The Arcane Angel.  He fought crime and the forces of darkness with his magic granted to him by his artifact embedded in his spine.” He gave her a look.  “He just happened to be DCU-E-16’s Roy Harper.” He sighed heavily.  “A decision was made that we couldn’t let this opportunity go to waste, and I disagreed with it, but we took him.  Left that earth and went back to the dead zone we existed in.  There we extracted the fragment of the sarcophagus and integrated it into our technology.  It allowed my race, the Thaine, to build the Maze.  And the leaders of our people decided that if one Roy Harper had one fragment it was possible another had it as well.  So we began to search in vain for any versions of Roy Harper that might possess any powers and take him into the maze for study and evaluation.  Once it was determined that he didn’t have a fragment he was returned.  We searched for hundreds of years... and ultimately I realized they would search forever for something they couldn’t find.   
  
There were only four fragments.  Not millions scattered in echoed universes across a matrix.  And the chances that all four Heralds chose the same shape was insane.  So between that and my uncomfortable sense of horror at what we were doing, I left the Maze, left the Thaine, and joined Earth-13’s heroes.  I even dated Ragman for awhile.  I learned everything that world had to offer about the deepest parts of sorcery.  And I fought for a time there along side that world’s heroes.  You might know some of their stories, if in a slightly altered state.   
  
There was the hero Etrigan from the doomed world of Kamelot and it’s Hell type star, for the mystical twilight of Earth where every day has thirteen hours and every year has thirteen months.  He fights against dark magic in Merlin’s name as Superdemon and founded the League of Shadows with other heroes such as The Hellblazer, Annataz, Witchboy, Swamp-Man, Fate, Ragman, Deadman, and the Enchantress.” He gave her a look.   
  
“John Constantine, Zatanna, Klarion, Swamp-Thing, Dr Fate, and others... they all came together there?”   
  
“Funny little world that is protected by so much sorcery not even the Lords of Chaos or the Lords of Order could enter it.  It is a twilight place where neither force can enter fully.  Though they’ve tried over the years.  Their Klarion is so different from the one you know.  Of course he’s sought out most of his duplicates and killed them so that he could be singular.  A Lord of Chaos must never have a weakness as basic as having an alternate reality form that could undo his spells.  So Klarion seeks out his alternate selves and kills them to take their powers.  Folding it into himself, but also the Witchboy of Earth-13.  Not that he knows that he’s making his only remaining duplicate stronger.   
  
I’d have staid there forever if I hadn’t decided I could do more for the multiverse if I sought out where I was needed most.  So I broke ties with Earth-13 and came here.  To a world where they needed someone to help with the powers of young sorcerers.  I helped Merlin form this school.  We created it as a beacon, a way to protect the young from the damage their powers might make on the world.  And we’ve trained some of the greats over the years.  And some of the worst as well.” He sighed.  “But as it stands we have the Lords of Order and the Lords of Chaos in their little war.  Merlin moving along playing his chess game with reality.  Metatron and Evo moving from world to world looking for fragments and powers.  Watch Tower setting up shop in worlds to make a difference.  The Thaine and their maze.  The School with no Doors to act as a magical hand in this war.  And all of us distracted from the Arkrellians and their machinations across all of creation.” He sighed, stretching as he sat there.  “But I believe it might be time for you to see the face of some of what you’re facing.” He sat there looking at her as his face and hair melted into pail mint green skin, with lilac, plum, and lavender markings dotted his face, his large pointy ears, and his prominent lips.  His electric lavender eyes looking at her from this alien face.   
  
“I have need of something that I can not obtain in this universe, and I am unable to leave this universe to gather it.” He sat there in his natural state letting her take it in.   
  
“What do you need?” She tried to recover.   
  
“Mick Rory is in danger.  Scorch will keep coming unless his power is repelled.  And I know of only one place in the multiverse of this matrix that has what we need.” He sighed, standing and walking to the wall of books behind him.  “You know of Hawkgirl?”   
  
“I haven’t met her here, but I know of her and Hawkman.” Chloe nodded.   
  
“Did you have a chance to meet Wonder Woman?”   
  
“Once, from Earth-16.”   
  
“Ah.  Lovely woman.  She’s always been one of my favorites.  But I ask you this because I need an agent to meet up with their counter part on Earth-32... it’s a hybrid world where people you know where as two people are one there.  On Earth-32 there is a woman by the name of Dianna Hal, daughter of the race of Amazonian Hawkwomen.” Chloe’s eyes went wide.  “On the planet of Themyscagar they have a metal.  They make their bracelets and weapons from it.  It is known as Amazonium Nth metal.  And it repels all magic that would attempt to touch it.  They are known as God Slayers because they are capable of killing even Gods with their weapons.  It’s the only place in the multiverse that I know of that has the material of such perfect opposition to magic that might help us save young Mr. Rory’s life.”   
  
“I can’t exactly go off and leave this universe myself.  I start coming and going and I’m likely to get noticed by one of the factions as well.”   
  
“Of this I am aware.  I have taken the time to build this.” He opened a hidden panel and brought out a smooth seamless sphere.  “It took me a long time to wait for this reality’s technology to reach the point where I could build one of these here.  And even longer to test it where the others couldn’t detect it.” He smiled.  “But this will create a vacuole capable of taking what ever operatives you wish to send to Earth-32 and getting the metal we need.  If you will do this for me, I will help put the Watch Tower resistance in touch with a power that isn’t involved in this war, but could help end it.”   
  
“You would help put a stop to your own people’s meddling in the affairs of other realities?”   
  
“I want this war to end so we can all live our lives where and when and how we need to with out constantly trying to obliterate each other or worry about the Arkrellians deciding to obliterate us.” He looked up at her, his face sliding back into his human like appearance.  “Do we have an accord?”   
  
“Yes.” Chloe stuck out her hand and he shook it.

**Author's Note:**

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